The rantings of a teacher who retired from the classroom but not from education.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Rate My Teacher

A teacher friend of mine was upset about a negative comment someone wrote about her on rate my teacher. She is a good teacher, a very caring person and very sensitive.

I know I shouldn't have done it, but I did it anyway. I went to the site and rated her every day until she ended up being portrayed as the teacher she is. What I did might not be ethical, but I don't care. I eased the hurt of a wonderful person. Besides, if the site takes anonymous ratings that are bad, it might as well take the ones that are good too.

Ratemyteachers.com is a website that allows people to rate their teachers on a scale from 1 - 5 for such things as eainess, clarity, helpfulness and popularity. Lots of times kids keep going in and writing the sme bad stuff over and over. I prefer the college's way of rating teachers.

I just made the mistake of reading my rate my teacher comments. While some were nice and some very nice, it's the mean ones that are really hurting me right now and making me wonder if I'm really that awful. It hurts.

Although that was a nice thing that you did for a friend, sometimes these ratings are legit. I just left a very negative review for my son's Creative Writing teacher, which he 100% deserves. This teacher walked into class today and told the students they could not only not talk in class anymore, but they can also not talk to him. All class work will be either a quiz or reading and will be posted on the board. If they even ask him a question, they will get a one hour detention which includes reading a short story and writing about it. If the teacher feels that it is not up to his standards, he will give the student another detention. Additionally, he told them if they went to the principal to complain that "he has two knives under his desk, one that will cut off the student's open campus and another that will cut off the student's parking privileges. I'm not sure whom he meant by "he". My son assumes that he meant the principal, but I am not so sure. So, again, sometimes these rating are a true.

PS. I would just like to add that my child was so upset when he told me about this. This teacher has always been an inspiration to my child and by far a favorite teacher. I have yet to decide how far I will pursue this with the school/school board. Both my son and his younger sibling are asking me not to do anything about it. My child that is in the class does not want the teacher reprimanded or fired, and my other child is afraid that the teacher will take any complaints that I make out on her next year.

Any suggestions or comments on this would be greatly appreciated. FYI, this is not a big city school, we are NH.

About the creative writing teacher, I would say wait this one out a few days and give the teacher the opportunity to defend themselves personally before taking it up the the principal/ school board.As a teacher (with a sarcastic sense of humor) I will tell you that I have several times had things I've said in the classroom misunderstood by my students. Every teacher has bad days and makes mistakes. Obvioulsly something happened to prompt these harsh words. Please, be considerate And fair and voice your concerns directly to the teacher in an email before taking further action. It could be a misunderstanding to some degree, or you may not know some parts if the equation.

Also on the topic of the creative writing teacher: It sounds like completely unprofessional conduct but it's something that should be addressed head on and through administrative channels rather than on an anonymous site. Rating someone anonymously is ineffective and in most cases, demonstrates bias rather than a valid concern. The reality is that most teachers do their best to help students. If students are having difficulties they need to go talk to the teacher and sort things out. If it comes down to a personality conflict then, if need be, go through other channels to work out the problems. As far as I can tell, RMT encourages people to hold on to biases, if not out and out grudges, and leaves users with a feeling of self-righteousness that is hardly conducive to solving what may be very real problems.

About the creative writing teacher - I would suggest talking to the teacher first. Perhaps you will get a better perspective on what happened with both sides of the story. Also, it will give you a chance to tell the teacher that he needs to consider his words before saying them. I am a teacher, and sometimes it's easy for us to feel like we have the relational credit to be a little sarcastic. However, some kids are sensitive to that, and we as teachers need a reality check from time to time to always remember to speak kind and helpful words.

Only after you speak to the teacher directly and if you aren't satisfied with the outcome, should you contact administrators. It's the standard chain of command.

Kids are kids. Sometimes, they do not know what a good teacher is. Some of them truly believe that a good teacher never gives any work and always gives out A's. Is that a good teacher? I don't think so. Furthermore, a bad teacher, to some students, makes kids work for their A's and assignments work because they genuinely care that their students success. Kids are kids. If only the ones that write nasty comments could reconsider ten years later...

I am a 20 year teacher that just was laid off due to budget cuts.I went to an interview and was asked RMT. I was astounded that that an administrator would even think about using this as a criteria for employment. I went to google and my name is listed first with a direct link to RMT. Even though I had a good rating (3.6) it was the few negative comments from either a parent or a few students who have an ax to grind that seem to stand out. I tried to contact RMT and they make it impossible to speak or email anyone. I contacted google , since it is the only search engine that lists RMT with my name, to see how I could get this removed. They spoke to me in a very rude manner telling me they have nothing to do with it and therefore there was nothing they can do even though it is on their search engine. This is a very dangerous and destructive website. I am surprised they have not been slammed with many defamation lawsuits. Does anyone have any ideas on how to contact anyone from this website? Any ideas ?

The only reason you are doing this is because you want to prevent a student from practicing his first ammendment right. If the student feels that he was discriminated agaisnt by a teacher he should have the right to speak his opinion so long as his comments do not contain threatening or harmful material.

I don't agree with what you did. She is your friend and I understand that you were probably hurt reading things about your friend but unless you have taken her class you have no right to judge her teaching skills. I have a good friend who is a teacher and I took one of her classes, she was AWFUL. People with any sense in their head take those things with a grain of salt, you can tell who is out for blood.

I am a practising teacher who has taught senior and middle high school and am also a state appointed assessor for a senior subject. I have known of 'Rate My Teacher' for quite a while and was unsure of what to make of it. I have read a number of comments about it on this site and on the RMT site itself, and there is roughly an even spread of opinion over its usefulness. I decided to look at it again the other day and read a crude response from some student and thought a little more about it. If anyone has been following Ellen DeGenere's anti bullying campaign, one can't help but see this site as a forum for students to harass teachers. I love that students say 'well teachers can say things about us on our report cards"--obviously the differnce is we don't say anything hurtful, a good report comment should be constructive, and anything we write has our name on it. While U.S. writers may say it is their right to free speech, is it your right to say things that are hurtful and harmful--a question you are currently asking yourself in court. The right to free speech doesn't apply to all countries where RMT is published, Australia for example does not actually have a document giving its citizens free speech, it is a cultural expectation. I am interested in seeing what the future of RMT is in countries where it can certainly be sued.For all of you teachers out there, keep doing all your hard work, as you know that you are doing something worthwhile that is unrewarded and undervalued. Maybe one day things will change.

I am in the same situation as your friend was. I do my best for my student and care for them. Why should I get negative comments from lazy students becase they don't want to work? I really think it is not fair to run a website like RUT. As a teacher am I allowed to put pupils' name on a public website and ask other teachers to rate them? I need a good friend to help me out!

To remove your name from RMT go to your review section the click on report.....now state that the staff member is deceased and ask them to show some respect...sadly it has worked in the removal of a name..even more sad I was not lying about this colleague :(

I get that you wanted to help your friend, it's admirable. However, a lot of students really do rely on that site to pick teachers who will be able to help them succeed academically. Yes, some students will write their big "He looked at me funny! [profanity]! [profanity]! [profanity]!" But people will be able to tell them apart from the people who are offering their honest, mature opinions. Yes, I've left negative reviews of former teachers, but they're all facts (like what percentage of the work is just busy work, whether or not the teacher actually goes over the information or just lets the students teach themselves). It's sad that teachers may read these and feel bad about it, but it's worse having students walk into class thinking the teacher is able to help them only to discover that they're stuck with a teacher who only cares about getting paid. It's like a critique of a book or author. Yeah, it stings, but it's also an opportunity for someone to tell you exactly what you need to do to improve. Similarly, if the teacher has no intention of modifying their style, the students deserve a warning.

But I agree that RMT should definitely NOT be used as a source for potential jobs. RMT is a site for students, not employers.

With enough comments, the ratings are true... I have found it very valuable in choosing high school teachers... sorry others feel it is unfair, but no one asks the kids to honestly rate the teacher on job performance... they could become better teachers if they did, but probably only the better teachers would care what the kids think.

Hey Give me a break. There are many very good teachers and some bad ones. rude to negative with students. We have a 12th grade teacher who uses Family Guy as a learning tool. Much of his teaching time is taken up by discussing Baseball. Every kid Ive talked to says he,s bad. Sure, he talks great to the parents. Speak directly to him, yeah that will work.Wrote anonymous letter to board & principal. Nothing changed. Tenure is what protects the good and the bad.This is what my tax dollars get. The good teachers know who they are ..Usually the posts are on target. You teachers want respect, get rid of your losers. Ive posted on RMT . Glad I did!

Sounds like you teachers are a little worried,,,,Hmmmm, why is that? Because you think every kid does not tell the truth about you and the way you teach!!!! They have every right to rate you because alot of you teachers think you have the power to bully them. I think rate my teacher is a good site and just maybe all you teachers out their will learn something by it. Ta Ta,,, You have just been graded,,,,,

I posted an earlier comment voicing concern about RMT, and those concerns are still legitimate but I also thought perhaps it could be used. I wondered what would happen if students were asked to use it, legitimising it as part of the school learning process. At the moment it has really been vilified--this vilification has invariably lead to it being seen underground site to insult teachers rather than a place to make constructive criticism. It has been 'owned' by students, embracing it does remove that ownership and may lead them to take it seriously. I asked my Year 9s to use it when I was out of the school specifying that they only comment on my teaching not my personality. (It remained anonymous). The comments were thoughtful and showed some of their concerns about the work expected of them--which is not a bad thing. I also asked them to fill out something similar about themselves as students--in most cases they were surprisingly honest and accurate. The concerns about the site I mentioned in the earlier post are all still legitimate--but it may be possible to reduce its power by taking ownership of it rather than denigrating it--after all if students start to see it as part of schooling they probably will start to ignore it--like they do with homework!

Fred, I have learned valuable things from this site and the rating forms my college students fill out every year so I am total agreement with the need for student feedback.

This way is not appropriate as the deck can be stacked in any direction.

Who would have thought this little post would generate so many comments. I was just trying to help a friend, who has a reputation of being a good teacher, but was being slammed by one or two unhappy campers.

I have mixed feelings about this. I can see where it could be a form of cyber bullying. On the other hand, there have been -- very few -- instances where a teacher was repeatedly way out of line and numerous parents went through the chain of command. Nothing was really done. The teacher had tenure. I never rated this teacher because those of us who voiced concern have been treated very differently since we did it. Regardless of whether the other teachers know we're right, they see us as troublesome and untrustworthy. Even though a few of them brought it up to me and said they supported us. I still feel a chill and get cold looks from some of the teachers.

To be fair, I could never be a good teacher. I don't have the patience for it, nor the skills to keep a class motivated and progressing. I have an enormous amount of respect for teachers. I just wish the really bad ones would find another line of work.

As a senior in college, I used Rate My Teachers for High School and Rate My Professors for College. Although some students post malicious, false comments on these websites, a majority of the comments are accurate.

While it may be hard for some teachers to stomach the harsh criticism, this is often the only way they see it. Students also have a right to know what they are getting themselves into when picking classes. In high school, there are usually not course evaluations, which means teachers don't get criticism for bad teacher habits. Even in college, these evaluations are generally kept private and only seen by the professors (often which they ignore), and members of the general admissions staff.

While some of the comments are wrong, I always accurately grade professors. Only once did I grade the same teacher twice and that was because she violated federal law and got away with it. Often times, we don't want to hear our faults, especially the bullies. Yet everyone has the right to avoid bullies. I've had professors who flat out criticized racial minorities in class and teachers who intentionally curved the class to fail half the class.

To those teachers who complain they receive bad scores for heavy course work, I have two comments. First, you have to gauge by level the appropriate amount of course work. I had teachers my Freshman year of high school who gave more homework than some of my 300/400 level classes in college. I see that a majority of the students are just lazy, but some teachers genuinely do expect too much. Taken with a grain of salt, these comments can help teachers realize how demanding course-wise they are pushing it, especially for the students who serve the school in activities or advanced testing and curriculum. Secondly, on RMT and RMP, reviewers are encouraged to mention why they gave these number ratings, which often they have validate statements like "excess busy work" or "ignored questions."

To the person who originally wrote this thread, you should NOT have stuffed the box with positive comments, especially since you have a personal relationship with the teacher, giving you perception bias.

I just want to point out that I am a senior in a high school of about 2000, get straight A's and take Advance Placement classes.

I completely agree with the senior in college. The action was very bias.

I went on RMT quite often when I was in my freshman year of high school. Since then I have learned a lot about teachers, their teaching styles and personalities while they are teaching. But overall, I never solely rely on the website, because I know that 50% of our high school population is very lazy when it comes to school work. I used the opinions of my friends.

I ran cross-country for years and my teammates would consistently graduate in the top ten, not top ten percent, but the top ten of their respective classes. Their opinions of teachers have been spot on accurate and comparing those opinions with the ones on RMT, they are not THAT far off.

I believe that if more than 10 (exaggeration) people post the same type of comment, then there is a relatively common opinion about a teacher. See, I am a math and science person. If you look at this site as a giant survey, then you can rule out the outliers and use the good data of the site. Granted, most of the opinions are based on emotions, but what if 10 different people had the same emotion? Is that a significant piece of data?

Yes, the action was a nice thing to do, but it skews the data. I’m sorry that your colleague was receiving bad reviews, but in the name of science, this was not a wise thing to do.

I really like the site and I still use the site to this day. I really wish there was a way for students of a certain rank to voice their opinion about teachers, because as we all know, there are good ones and bad ones. I think this would better our school systems, specifically mine.

lol, to the post above, you must be a teacher, i take it! This rate my teacher thing has got you a little harsh on us, hmmm rate my student or parent,LOL,that will never happen....But just like other posts above rate my teacher will be here for a long time,,, Better get use to it!!!

Among the big problems with a site like RMT are:1) any one person can post multiple times - regardless of whether it is positive or negative. This skews reviews and makes them inaccurate.2) like me, the usual reason people look for a site to comment on someone is because they ARE pissed off. Very few people go out of their way to report the good.3) because it is anonymous (and for good reason) there is no way for a teacher to directly deal with and possibly rectify the situation. Think about the BBB - again, most of the folks are going to go there specifically to complain, but the BBB at least works towards an actual remediation that can benefit both parties. That is what makes the BBB work and why businesses subscribe to it; it helps a company improve themselves and make for satisfied consumers (along with showing if/how a dispute was dealt with). If a site like RTM could be used in such a fashion, it might actually become a useful tool to help us become better teachers.

Ok, the gesture was very well spirited, but how is that fair of you? Instead of having an accurate representation of what some people may think of her, your opinion is taking priority over everyone else's? Other people have opinions too. On the other hand it's debatable if you can trust the judgment of most students; they can be very immature. But the teacher should judge for herself if she needs to listen to that junk or if that student is out of their mind, or maybe you could help with that if you want to help. I never have seen the point of being irrational, but it seems so many people try to justify it in some way.

I too have been feeling pretty uneasy about this website. Ratemyteacher.com began as a result the success of Ratemyprofessor.com- a site which to me makes alot of sense. College students can get alot out of the website in order to help them decide which classes to enroll in. Middle and High School students dont have nearly as much freedom when it comes to choosing classes, so the only point of Ratemyteacher.com is to simply praise or complain about grade school teachers. Most of these students are not at a mature age to appropriately voice their concerns- I am a teacher myself, and have checked out the ratings and reviews of many of my co-workers. In most cases I am left shaking my head thinking "wow, some student must have had a rough day behaving and this teacher may have been short with them- but that rating definitely does not do that teacher justice!". Similar to writing a review about a restaurant. How often do you find yourself having a wonderful meal at a restaurant and thinking, "Wow! I need to run home and write a review for everyone to know about this great place!"... more often then not the only reason the general public reviews a restaurant or a teacher is to complain about a one time bad experience.

I have read all of these posts both critical and complimentary. Those that see the "good" in RMT fail to take into consideration the questions asked. Popularity? Easiness?....... I have to believe that RMT is the product of a vengeful, lazy, immature group of people looking to make an easy buck off of the immaturity and laziness of others. RMT is neither a true nor thoughtful evaluation. It's a junior highish and immature popularity contest. To prove the point, retired teachers who have tried to have their name removed from the site, are met with immature and sarcastic responses from the employees that act on the requests. That's if they can even get past the contact "code." That RMT continues to post the names of retired teachers serves no purpose what-so-ever other than a vengeful one.

Last night I glanced at my ratings and was utterly appalled to see two sexual and vulgar postings about myself. I hadn't checked RMT in a year or so because it really has no usefulness whatsoever (for those of you saying teachers need to hear constructive criticism - you are absolutely correct. That is the purpose of out anonymous end-of-course evaluations, which are kept for administrators to see). I checked RMT last night on a whim - and I was and am disgusted. "She should be a stripper"??? Are you kidding me? "She is strate ho"??? "I pinched her and she's firmer than I imagined she'd be." How on earth are these useful for deciding what kind of teacher I am??? How is this the "truth" about me and my teaching skills and content knowledge??? It is degrading, demeaning, disgusting, and one more reason to reconsider this career.

My feelings are, that if teachers cant take what they see on RMT, they shouldn't be going on it. Just because the teacher thinks they are fair, they can do something that his/her students thinks is totally bitchy.

Ok, but do students have the right to sexually objectify their teachers on RMT if the teacher does something "bitchy"? RMT would have some validity if the majority of students rated their teachers, not just 2 or 3 kids a year (which skews the rating either way), and RMT actually monitored the site to make sure postings were appropriate (ie: not vulgar).

Look , most students know at the high school level who the great/good / poor ones are.Just like you did when you were there.I knew.You knew. One bad rating is an opinion more than that needs to be looked at. We pay your salaries so go get some more education .Leave the teaching to the ones who love to teach and can relate or go flip burgers. Hey whats the problem you have tenure. Any other job holder with poor performance would be told get out. To the great/good ones " Thank you"

guys. teenagers hate themselves. they are so insecure and don't know who they are..... and it's hard for them to believe anyone really cares about them. to them, teachers are out to get them. you may call them naive or selfish... but that's just how teenagers are (at least those of this era). they aren't going to appreciate you. it's hard for them. they only appreciate the REALLY EXTRA nice teachers who BLATANTLY show that they care for students, because those are the only ones they'll believe truly care for them. it's hard being a teenager. it's a time of intense insecurity, and it's hard to feel that these grown-ups who make you come to school every day and force you to do work and basically control much of your life for a couple years, truly are on your side. it's hard to appreciate you. we're sorry for the negative comments. it's just we feel bad in school a lot. it's a difficult experience. we're lonely more than anything, even though most people will act to the contrary. most teenagers feel lonely inside despite how confident they act and how many friends they have. it's hard to trust fellow students, much less these TEACHER people who tell you what to do. you feel like they're against you. it's hard to actually SEE that most teachers care a LOT. they wouldn't go into that profession if they didn't. but thank you. thank you for caring, and sorry we don't see it or thank you enough. it must be tough being a teacher. doing what you love and trying to help kids, but getting distrust and animosity in return. you're good peoples. but it's not the teenagers' fault either. they just kind of really need to feel that people care about them. they can only trust you when it's completely out in the open and they feel assured that it's real. you know? teenagers are weird. but everyone wants to feel more love; we could definitely use more of it in this world. in the end, this is the core issue to most problems, the lack of love. and more of that would most likely solve all of our problems or render them irrelevant.

I'm a teacher, and I find that this site is mostly used by kids who are upset at the moment and don't understand that the "criticism" they are leaving is permanent. One student wrote that one of the teachers in my department is a "pedo" and the comment is still there. Granted, the guy isn't everyone's cup of tea, but a "pedo" he is not. That comment is borderline criminal.

How an administrator could justify using this site for evaluations is beyond me. It's another argument that administrators are so far removed from actual teaching and students it's laughable.

And if you can "stuff the ballot box," what value could this site possible have?

Hey High School Student. Thanks for the heartfelt feelings. You touch on many important issues .You are a communicator and a caring individual.Great traits.I respect you. I do however feel that you need to have a little more time to actually understand people {adults] The fact that we are not all graced with the ability to truely know who we are and what we want.This leaves us in a bit of a quandry. What makes a good teacher? This has to be one of the hardest jobs . NOT ALL ARE Capable OF.I happen to feel the radical bad raps , bad language, no respect reports are to be dismissed and get the body of the rating. Disrepectful students, no excuse . Poor teachers ,whats theirs? Most of the ratings of my sons school bear out the the facts.To the good ones Thanks! To the poor ones. Do the students a favor find a different profession. Probably all the teachers reading this are caring or they wouldnt be reading these posts. Say heres a new one if you teachers know a bad teacher use your power to do something. Hey if its broke, fix it.Hey student I'm on your side. Maybe some of us could learn from you?

I'm a ninth grader and my opinion of the site is it's all just a joke. Although it could ruin a teacher's reputation for future students, I don't see why it shouldn't be up. Students are going to talk with or without a website. Also, I can't stress it more that anyone can post anything on the internet. It's all anonymous! If I wanted to I could go to the page of a school anywhere in the states and write whatever I wanted about any teacher. No one should really take the site seriously, it's all teenagers and their opinions. It's not fact. Then again, it might not be just teens, but additionally angry moms, or even co-workers.Personally, I think it's kind of fun to see what others say about the teachers I have. Granted, I don't agree with everything they post. I base my opinion of a teacher on actual time spent in their classrooms.

I was rated on this site and called a monkey, a prostitute and many comments were made about my nappy hair. I am African American. Rate my Teacher takes NO responsibility for what is posted. Just read their legal disclaimer.

I am the first African American woman to teach Precalculus at my high school. You don't think that had something to do with it? There were threats and even comments about me out with my boyfriend on the weekend (which is pretty scary). There were physical attacks and vandalism in my classroom with comments quoted directly from the site.

Those who are defending this sight don't seem to understand that it is UNMONITORED and DANGEROUS. The so called "moderators" are students that currently attend the school. This is not a useful tool for anyone. It is a vehicle for racism and sexual harassment.

I had to get the superintendent, lawyers and my union involved to try to stop the postings. There was nothing they could do. Rate my teacher didn't even respond. So according to some of you who wrote comments, maybe I was a "bad teacher" who deserved it. Maybe African Americans shouldn't teach Precalculus?

Teachers should be evaluated by other neutral professionals with degrees, experience and GUIDELINES, not disgruntled students, parents or bullies.

RMT doesn't give a wahooey about free speech or improving education. It's about the bottom line. As long as they make money they remain in business. So why not make it difficult to remain in business? I was stalked by a disturbed student. I did nothing to deserve it and his comments were not reflective of any reality except his own. When RMT refused to remove the comments without a police report, I began contacting the Vice-Presidents of marketing for the advertisers on the site. I would tell them my story and provide them with copies of the kind of comments that appeared beside their corporate branding. Let me tell you, when a company spends millions on a corporate logo, they do not appreciate having the rants of a disturbed person beside it! In all cases the companies were not aware that they had been advertising on the site, they withdrew their advertising and issued me a sincere apology. So, I'm suggesting that those who do not like the site do the same. The internet is a wonderful tool that works both ways. If a web site is not responsible, those who fund the site should be held accountable where it counts-- at the bottom line. Maybe when a few employees at RMT start loosing their jobs or their bonuses they will begin to ask the question, "how can we become more responsible?"

If I as one person could get 5 companies within a span of 2 weeks to cancel their advertising, think what all the pissed off teachers could accomplish.

RMT is a very unique/controversial website to say the least. You have some students who do have an ax to grind and will come on the website simply to type a negative hate speech/rant about their teacher, but then you actually have a few students that do type thoughtful comments about their teachers praying that their voice will be heard and some aspect of their teaching will be changed/improved. However I firmly believe it's a shame that students who have something meaningful to say have to use some random website to let their voice be heard. From a student's perspective, I greatly appreciate what teachers do for this nation. You guys put up with a ton of cr*p and a low salary and hateful comments (most of which are not even true), but still have the courage to teach six periods of jam packed classes filled with mostly disrespectful students and their raging hormones, simply to contribute positively to our society and see your students succeed. I'd like to say thank you to every teacher out there reading this, but we seriously need a better system for student/teacher input.

Teacher's pay is low because they choose that. They would rather sit and do nothing and continue to be paid at their low rate than choose the opportunity to show how great they are and be paid up to six figures. The teacher's union is the reason our education system sucks so bad and until we unite as a nation against it, we will continue on that path until we are no longer a nation of power!!!! There needs to be more ways to rat out the pisspoor teachers that choose to sit back, be disrespectful to students and not do their job!!!

No, Anonymous from 2/28/11, our educational system is a mess because of social promotion, the dumping of kids with vastly different abilities into a single class and expecting a teacher to meet all their needs, spineless administrators who are played with like puppets by school boards, and parents who complain to the principal when Darling Babykins gets a bad grade because he doesn't do anything but veg out on his video games/I-Pods/etc. And this concept of coupling teacher pay with student performance is utterly insane. Would you fire your dentist if you never brushed your teeth between cleanings and then got a cavity?

Been reading these posts for some time now and I have posted also. I personally agree w/ both sides on some issues .The middle ground is what I look for. We wouldnt need a rate my teachers if a quality control system was in place for teachers. The teachers have a system in place for students , report cards,comments section. detention.Parent teacher meetings. What actually do the students have for them to effectively be heard and acted on? My question is if I hear you correctly, you fail a deadbeat student, you have a problem w/ the administrator? So what? You have tenure and all the other teachers should be failing this kid orhaving issues too right? I,d say your covered. Sounds fair to me. Now where do the students go to fail a deadbeat teacher? We know there are deadbeat students. The magic word here is tenure .I make no excuses for bad students, you have legitimate ways to handle them . I pay my hard earned wages to support public schools but have very little if any say in who the schools hire. When a teacher calls a kid a pussy and shows Family Guy in class you bet "I'm pissed." Wrote the board a letter he's still there .. get my drift.

I just found my own name on the RMT site and was appalled to find I was criticized as acting like a 13 year old and giving students dirty looks. How disrespectful. I know I am great and caring teacher. If students and parents have an issue they should deal with it face to face. Since when are the rules in how we treat teachers different than how we treat any other person? A teacher complained about a student on a personal blog and was FIRED. Now there is a whole website dedicated to letting students and parents complain about teachers. Show some respect people. Teaching is one of the most challenging professions out there. We fail amongst other countries because we don't hold out teachers with the esteem other countries do. How disappointing. (And you know I haven't acted like a 13 year old since I was 13 years old.)

I have to say that I don't agree with your stuffing of the ballot box, for many of the reasons stated here (number one is that while she may be a caring friend, that doesn't necessarily make her a wonderful teacher).

However, on the basis of the site itself (and I am talking mainly about RMP), I feel as though it has merit, so long as everyone takes it with a grain of salt. Can it be horribly abused? Yes. Do many students that post on the website post in the heat of anger, or deserved the grade they received due to lack of effort or care? Probably. Should this be used as a way to judge a teacher's ability to teach from an employer's perspective? Certainly NOT! However, does it mean that the site is entirely without use?

I would answer "no". This is obviously not the best way to rate a teacher, but as someone pointed out, the students themselves have no other recourse in many ways. Telling the teacher themselves is very risky, because it could negatively affect your grade (while I would hope teachers would be mature and professional enough to handle criticism, best not to risk it). Even in a point based class, I think oftentimes there is a gray area between, say, a + or a - grade that the teacher can use to either reward or punish a student (it's happened to me on both accounts).

Well, what about anonymous department evaluations? Those should solve the problem right? Ideally, and I confess I don't know much about what actually happens to the evaluations once they have been handed in. However, this is still flawed because often times I find that they don't ask the right questions. For example, in a recent class I took, what the professor taught and what the course was supposed to be about were two very different things. So how should I grade a question such as "Instructor displays a proficient command of the material"? Well, he certainly knew his stuff when it came to teaching us all about ecology, except this was supposed to be a class about evolution. "This course is difficult relative to others". Well this is my first time taking the class, so...?

By reading the comments here, I also get the feeling that even if students did comment on things, they might just be shrugged off because they probably were surfing the internet instead of doing their work. Or if a parent complains, they probably just expect more out of their kid than he actually can do. I acknowledge that these things may (and even probably are) true, but their comments should be heard without these assumptions regardless.

Finally, I would just like to say that I personally appreciate such websites such as RMP, mostly because I am fairly unsocial and it helps to know that hey, this class is intense and I definitely want to make sure I'm not taking any other intensive courses, or this teacher is more concerned with concepts, or hey, watch out because this professor doesn't take kindly to questions that aren't directly relative to the material at hand. The information from the websites are far more tailored to other students taking the class as opposed to the teachers themselves (in my reading at least) and in general I can tell which ones sound legitimate and which are probably just emotional outbursts. I don't base whether I take a class completely on the reviews, but I have found them to be mostly accurate, though of course mileage may vary. Perhaps it might be easier to think of it as a student warning other students site as opposed to a teacher critique website?

When my son said, "I just want to die" this weekend, he got my attention. My son is not a super whiz, but has enough smarts to get into higher achievement classes. We knew it was going to be tough, but he wants to play baseball in college. Full ride baseball scholarships are very hard to come by. He knows he needs good grades to get academic scholarships along with some baseball ones. The higher achievement classes earn him higher GPA. Tomorrow he will earn a second F in his algebra class. The problem lies with my son, the teacher and me. I know what my son and I have done wrong - allowing this to go on too long, putting him in a class where he doesn't belong, not communicating with each other, etc. Of course my son blames the teacher. Don't all kids? He gave me anecdotal evidence of her poor habits, i.e. just giving answers to a math question when he ask for how to come up with the answer. Finally he asked me to go to RTM. She has a 1.8 rating. Back in 2004 she got a good comment. Now in 2010 and 2011 she has received 3 bad reports. Maybe something has happened in her life to change her effectiveness. I don't know. But the site is useful. As a parent I understand the rantings of teenagers and hope I can parse out the ballot stuffers and the those who want to get back at teachers. Right now I say keep the site.

I am really sorry about your son and I would definitely seek further help for him. But I also wonder about basing your opinion on 3 bad reports when this teacher must have many more students. Have you spoken with the teacher? Education is, as you rightly pointed out, the responsibility of all parties - parents, kids, teachers. So what does this teacher say? Have you all sat down together and looked over your son's work? Perhaps this teacher has burned out, but I'd bet she has some insights as to why your son is earning an F. Good luck.

A former colleague has been going on RMT and posting all 1's for me. He has done this with other teachers he does not like. Yes, I do know it is this particular person and have proof in my case, but how do I stop it without having to resort to legal action? I have asked RMT to take my name off with no success. I have noticed that some people have had "pending review" for years on some ratings.

On my rating a student wrote, "I hate her." How is this rating helpful? What can I possibly do to change this student's opinion of me? It doesn't matter. The opinion has been formed. She/he probably hates me because I enforce the rules of the the classroom and the rules of the school. I had a 16 year-old student tell me he was going to kill me because I gave him a firm talking-to and a detention because he was trying to kill the baby birds in a nest outside my window. I had a girl throw a desk at me because I asked her where her book was (her dad was a meth dealer). I had a girl call me a b*&^* because I asked her to put away her makeup and use it between classes instead of during class. (She has been arrested for prostitution 3 times) Why would I want a teenager like this to rate me? Seriously? I cannot make everyone like me. Some kids grow up in a poor environment with unimaginable things happening to them, and I cannot change that, but I can try. However, I do not think they should have so much power in the click of a mouse to write horrible reviews because they don't LIKE me. I am a very nice, fun, creative, happy, polite, educated person who strives to do my best every day. I have won several teaching awards, which happened to be from student nominations, and one person says she hates me. Emotionally it is very hurtful for me and I am quite depressed by it. I love my students and work tirelessly for them. I get to school at 7 and leave at 5:30. I am up until 11:30 grading and creating lesson plans. Why should students be able to leave such comments? This one person's opinion can also be like an infective poison that also influences others. What benefit is there for me to read a comment like, "I hate her"? This is just a tool for students to berate and bully their teachers. I have 150 students and only 3 have rated me. Two were negative and one positive. I would have to honestly say that most kids would only bother to do RMT to get back at the teacher, not write helpful things. I have gone through pages of teachers who I KNOW are amazing and they have scathing reviews too. I have firmly decided, I will NEVER read my reviews again. I am a teacher, a good one, and yes, we have feelings too.

Most of the comments on that website are vicious. They are done with the sole purpose of hurting or destroying someone else's reputation. Teachers are someone else's mom or dad, husband or wife....Someone that needs a job. There are bad teachers out there, as there are bad doctors, bad presidents, bad moms, bad dads, and plain bad vindictive coward human beings. This RMT wsbsite is an instrument for the latter. It does not matter how bad someone is. It you think that you are right, use the proper channels FACE TO FACE and listen to ALL sides of the story. I you don't, and just jump to use this website in a destructive way, you are just a sorry excuse for a human being....a COWARD that hides behind a monitor to destroy another human being. On another note, the Principal that uses that website as an instrument for evaluation, needs to be reporte to the school district, diocese in case of Catholic Schools or the proper agency/director that oversees that school system.

Just came up w/ an idea ,probably not original though . Why don't teachers have a questionaire to the students in their class to rate the teacher and return it for evaluation of their performance, it's private and the educator can get an idea of students thoughts.You might not need this site. Oh yeah I forgot kids need a degree to be logical and objective. Look, if your a good educator you and most all know it,you also have tenure. If your not good you still have my tax dollars and tenure???

Our school already has evaluations that we are required to give students. Obviously the feedback is useful - and thoughtful - and doesn't contain "evaluations" like: "nice pair of t*ts", and "totally sucks", which aren't terribly useful for improving teaching.

Like people have said above, how do you know if your friend is a good teacher? Your word is no better than a pissed off student. Your opinion is biased and you do not know how your friend teaches.

It's pathetic that teachers can't take criticism. Any other profession gets criticism from customers, why should teaching be any different? Because teachers feel superior? Teachers should be fired or reprimanded for giving bad service to their customers as any other person in another field would.

I sound like I hate teachers, but I don't. I've had many great ones, but just as many terrible ones also.

The perception you have of your friend might not be the same as the perception your students have of her. Maybe some of the ratings were fair and simply throwing away potential constructive criticism in the name of friendship is never a good option. I could understand if all the ratings were plain demeaning and unfair, but far too often do students' concerns are ignored or stay unadressed; this is what worries me about what you did.

When I rate my teachers on that site, I give an honest depiction of what I think of the teacher and his or her teaching methods. I don't exagerate, but I don't sugarcoat either. I know many students, "pissed", just go on there to "express their rage" because they feel entitled to something better. I also know many students only evaluate a very superficial aspect of their teacher, basically rating based on whether or not they like, read "are in good terms with" the teacher, and mislead the readers into buying a biased perspective. But I also know some students indeed try to be constructive.

Mainly, shouldn't the reasons why students would be mean to their teacher be further investigated rather than pretend (and make so that) they don't exist? As was debated on House not long ago, perhaps "there are no bad children".

Due to this abhorrent site (RMP in this cas), a teacher was stalked and attacked at her home by student - they got her new school location off the Google search created by this website (RMP) publishing her PERSONAL INFORMATION PUBLICLY WITHOUT HER PERMISSION. I hope the creators of the RMP and RMT sites and anyone that has ever used it are sued for everything they are worth and punished to the fullest extent of the law.

Anyone using RMP or RMT is disgusting and immoral and deserves any karma coming their way - no wonder American is an educational cesspool - students who do not have any interest in learning but rather on harassing teachers.

The morality of what you did speaks volumes. I'm sure the assesment the majority of the student's gave was correct. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out which kids are just complainers. It was not up to you to be the morality police on rate my teacher.I would rate you with the lowest score just for the fraud you committed on students and parents. You had no proff that the ratings were untrue. Would you teach your students to lie to get ahead in life. Shame on you I hope your proud of how imature you are. No wonder there are sites like rate my teacher.

Please check the many reasons cited above for not having a face to face. You probably forget the reason people are upset, it's they feel they really have no say. And to the letter regarding, lets have a rate my professions.That already exists, its called the free market and I have a choice. Selling my house is not quite what I had in mind. Good try though.You can cry unfair all you like but you must admit the deck is stacked in the favor of the bad teacher and whats worse are the people that excuse it .I dont excuse disrespect to teachers,most are hard working and care about quality education . Anyone who supports gagging constructive freedom of speech needs to go back and review their own education.

"constructive freedom of speech"...Therein lies the problem. RMT is the antithesis of constructive. It provides no real information about the quality of education, of teacher preparedness, of lesson delivery. I can't believe a site like this exists. "Freedom of speech" should not include anonymous public thrashing of public employees with no place for recourse.

ok im sorry but this post is total BS. That student who left a negative post has every right to his opinion, and just because your friend can't take a negative comment doesn't mean that he is wrong. I am 100% positive that teachers can feel the same way towards students and if there was a webstie called rate my students all of us would get bad reviews. I was also reading some other comments and came across the teacher who allowed no talking now i only read this briefly only to see someone say that the teacher should have some time to justify his new teaching method again BS. would a student have the right to justify not talking back to a teacher who could have possibly emotionally harrassed them like what happend to me when i was in high school NO teacher student relationship is all one sided and if stupid fix our School system and get things right!!!

RMT is a horrible idea. I mean, how many teenagers would give their own parents high ratings at this point in their lives? I didn't like most of my teachers in high school and I wasn't too crazy about my parents. But now that I'm almost 40, I can see the value of their discipline and instruction. When reading the reviews on the site, we should consider the age and maturity level of the source.

The RMT can be used to be mean but it can also be helpful. We moved to the Space Coast, Florida area a few years ago.I researched everything online(and found the RMT website) and noted what I read. When we finally moved I went on tours of the schools and in some cases (DMCCS) found it to be true. Im glad I knew , saw it first hand,and did not send my son there.

The problem is that the site is anonymous! anyone can go on and say anything they want. I can comment on teachers iv never met, say anything and not have to prove my comments are valid and not have to take responsibility for my them. Good or bad the site has NO VALIDITY! anyone who supports the site, i say go on to their name, say something negative hurtful and untrue and watch their opinion switch like a snap.

At the same time teachers are teachers. A lot of the time they will do it the way they want, day in day out for years, and not make adjustments. A lot of teachers take personal problems out on students also. The attitude "kids are kids' is a huge part of the problem, when the educator thinks they are right, just because they are the educator. I am from a family that is made up of mostly educators and we are all, for the most part, in agreement that the attitude of "I’m right cause I'm the teacher" or "They are kids they don’t understand" is a BIG problem.

Rate my teacher is a crock of shit! I am a math teacher. I come from a family of educators. I have more bad ratings than I have good ratings. I know I am not the best teacher out there, nor will I ever be, but I do work hard. I know my weaknesses as a teacher because I have listened to students I HAVE TALKED to, my administrators, and mentors. I deal with good students (those who do their work and follow instruction) and I deal with bad students (lazy, misbehaving, unfocused). While I can improve my skills as teacher, this anonymous website should not be the main public representation of my ability as a teacher. The problem lies in the fact that parents/kids are sometimes immature, delusional, and cowards. Speak to your teacher or school administrators privately about your concerns or include your name in a public forum. The complaints I hear on rate my teacher are more hurtful than constructive. I have received several personal notes from students telling me how much I have positively impacted their life as a teacher. I do not see those reviews on RMT and neither will anyone else. Teachers can not reach every kid, but the ones we do reach and inspire are worth the fight! The information is definitely skewed and not comprehensive! Skewed anonymous information is not good either way -good or bad! The owners of the website don't care about education, they are money suckers. If you check the other ratemywhatever sites (there are lots of them owned by the same people), none of them are as popular as RMT and RMP. The owners are happy with their product and have no interest in making the site more valid or better performing.

It's amazing how RMT takes no accountability for what's written on their site. If someone spray-painted hateful/racist/sexist things on the front wall of my house, I'm fairly confident the authorities would get involved and it would be my responsibility to fix it. Isn't that the equivalent with what's going on here in cyberspace?

I've received mostly positive comments, but I'll never forget the day when a student with a grudge posted an extremely cruel and untrue message that could have have greatly damaged my reputation and started rumors. Some people don't mind when their reputation gets publicly slammed by anonymous cowards. More power to them, but that's just not me.

Here's a tip to other concerned teachers....there's an option where you can follow specific teachers. Just sign up to follow yourself and you'll receive an Email when someone rates you. If it's slanderous, flag it, the comment will be under review, and it will eventually be removed. That's really our only defense at the moment.

Ok so lets say there are no bad teachers. And that we who post are cowards. How about all the coward teachers out there who choose not to blow the whistle on the fictitious bad teachers ? Oh yeah I forgot, we need to face them and no retribution will befall the student who does. And the not really bad teachers tenure will just be forgotten. Better to just not say anything. Problem is I pay teachers salary, like it or not and I cant get a refund and the students suffer. If I could move my student to a better school I would but Id be paying fees to both schools. This site is not perfect but in some cases shows me if there is a problem teacher it gives me the insight to make a possible choice as to which teacher is getting flags .As it is, Im doing everything I know to keep my Honor Society Student from having a loser American Constitution teacher. This teacher is an immature bully who calls students pussies which was proven and yes I cowardly wrote a note to the board . I dread the fact that he is slated to teach my kid in his senior year which he must take to maintain his pre college curriculum.I agree that threats and violence and slander have no place and it shouldnt happen either from students [or teachers]. But untill a better and effective way of dealing with problem teachers exists you will get this type of site. As teachers you will also carry the burden of allowing the bad teachers to impact your good names.As I see it, good teachers have nothing to fear from this site but worse, bad teachers dont either.

So I know that sometimes high school kids in pasrticular can be downright rotten and I'm not justifying that. But I am currently a college student, and although I am not too far out of high school, it has been long enough to gain perspective. I have had a lot of caring, compassionate, dedicated teachers, but that by no means gaurantees they are good. I have one such professor right now, and had others in high school. Being dedicated doesn't always mean that you are an excellent teacher, although it is generally a good indicator.Anf furthermore, I as a teacher, and an adult in general, you need thick skin. Let's face it, not everyone is going to get along, or like each other. It's a little contradicting to try to teach students to avoid conflict or to not take things personally, if you are doing so yourself. If she is really a wonderful teacher, then one comment should not be a big deal, as her amazing teaching should have been expressed elsewhere. And if she really is an amazing teacher, then some bitter kid kid making negative remarks should be dismissed as such.

So, as a college student you know everything there is to know about adulthood and being a teacher, I guess.

Yes, an adult and a teacher should have something of a thick skin, but there's only so much a person can take. And just like you, college student, we are entitled to feelings, too. And the teacher in question (as well as ALL the rest of us who have posted on this forum) was hurt by the comments on RMT. It's called being human.

Let me run down a day in the life of a teacher for you: we get to school, many of us up to an hour before we need to be there (I can't do that, because my babysitter can't take my children that early, so i get to work at 7 am). We deal with 150-250 students a day. Many of whom have IEPs (Individualized Education Plans) to accomodate their special needs. So, we must make sure that we are teaching our classes as well as following those. We spend our 1 plan period a day doing lesson planning, grading, copying, making power points, calling parents, taking with administrators, scheduling time in the school library, reading scholarly articles, testing out new technology, looking at test data, etc. Then, at the end of the school day, most of us conduct some sort of after school practice or activity before we go back to doing all the work we didn't finish during that 1 hour of prep time. Then we go home. We attempt to do laundry, fix dinner, maybe help our own children do their homework (because how embarrassing is it to be a teacher whose child is not succeeding in school?), get them to bed and finish up the rest of the work we didn't get done during the day. We finally get to go to bed ourselves so we can get up and do it all over again tomorrow. That's 1 day. Then we do it for 175 days in a year, only to be told by the public that we don't work hard enough and to be disrespected by parents, students and administrators alike. So, you can see how this original teacher's skin may have been stretched a bit thin...

Also, when you speak of teachers trying to teach students to avoid conflict, I would think that means avoiding physical conflict. Most adults are smart enough to realize that in a world of differing opinions, there will be mental and emotional conflict. What I try to instill in my students is a healthy way of dealing with those conflicts. But, of course you probably realized that, with all of your teaching experience.

I just retired from teaching after thirty eight years. During the first thirty two years I taught at primarily blue collar schools where I found most of the students to be very accepting of criticism so long as the teacher was fair and consistent. The parents were generally very supportive and appreciative of the teacher's efforts to educate their children. I received many awards and much recognition for my efforts in the field of education during that time and when RMT came out I noticed that practically all of my ratings were 5 or close to it. I have always been strict yet accepting and I truly believe nurturing of my students throughout my entire career however, when I was asked to come to the last school I taught in an extremely affluent community, I found that the students as well as the parents were more concerned about the grades that they were receiving rather than the knowledge and self discipline that they were accumulating. Many times I was questioned as to why a student only received a "B" to which I most often responded, "If they want an "A" then they have to do "A" work". While at this school with a few minor exceptions, the ratings for me at RMT became extremely low and they even made up things about me that were totally untrue. Some students even went as far as to set up a bogus my space in my name where they made horrible insinuations about my character and lifestyle. Unfortunately, in the State where I live there were no cyber bullying laws yet so since I couldn't prove that this was done on a school computer, nothing was done about it. This all occured because I stuck to my ethics xoncerning what was right and adgered to the guidlines of my profession. In short, they were angry with me because I was right and had done nothing even remotely unprofessional so the vindictib=ve ones had to find their way to get even. RMT whether knowingly or not, provided that soapbox for their anger to be heard. I sincerely sympathize with much of what I have read here and I do feel that if RMT is going to be allowed to release the information what they do it must be substantiated. We all know that the best way to handle a problem you are having with someone is to go to the source and then to the powers that be should you feel you have exhausted all other resources. Simply logging on to a site and defaming someone's character helps no one much less the situation. RMT could be a very useful site if it would only do what it professes to trying to do. Like all worthy jouranalistic efforts they desperately need to print only that information that they can prove to be totally accurate and there should be some system in place that holds them to it. God Bless

To the parent who posted on this blog and said that she rated her son's teacher for making a comment in class. Wow, what irrational thinking. A rational parent would first call the teacher set up a parent conference and have a conversation about what her son said and get some clarification. Children are developing people who base things primarily on emotion, and they view things according to their way and at their level. Should we rate this parent on a bad comment she made as a parent? I'm sure she has made a slip or reacted to things, because no one is perfect. So, should we rate her on this ONE comment or as a parent as a whole ?

A student made a sexually inappropriate comment in class and a consequence was given. Later there was a comment on the teacher name saying how horrible this teacher is. Does this make sense?

As someone who is fairly new to teaching (about 4 years) and I was drawn to it because I care about people and genuinely want to help others learn. While I value constructive feedback I am offended by a couple of rating on RMT which are not about my teaching but the technological facilities not within my control. There is a lack of respect in posting anonymous comments online and this feeds into the cyberbullying these students inflict on each other. I know as I have to deal with students and cyberbullying on facebook and formsprings everyday. I do not think teachers should be subject to this, do we have rate your doctor or rate your accountant? There is a good reason for this 1. everyone thinks they are an expert on teaching as they went to school 2. there is a total lack of respect for teachers.

Ultimately the comments from parents and others on this forum has forced me to reassess my career direction. It is not too late for me to change careers and there is no future in a career where you give so much and just get abused for it.

Is there a rate a student site( rate a student by name, and school)? Is there a rate a parent site( by name and school)?Can we file a complaint on students who disrupt the learning right of others, who are belligerent who waste tax payer money because they rather do other things other than learning for their future and benefit?Is there a file a complaint for all those sites who allow slander, cyberbulling etc? What will society come to? These sites are creating students who will know to complain, rant, destroy, hate and bully rather than learn for their future and be respectful towards their fellow human being.

In all respects to the writer of the post asking for a site on rate my students. I believe there is , it's called a report card. And then a meeting with the parents. I dont want disrepectful teachers or students .In my humble opinion they both should get the boot.Please read some of the above posts. The site has merit And please dont tell me about the teacher one on one. With a lousey teacher and fellow associates who fail to blow the whistle. You get nowhere. Been there.

My son just told me today about a professor who on the first day of class told the students, "I am passing around a paper for you to sign. If you cannot sign it, then get the hell out of here." The paper said, "I will not rat out Wayne (the teacher). After everyone had signed, he assigned a paragraph about whatever they wanted. Some classes he showed movies. The kids passed it on that it was a "must take" class.

It is very telling that those who post comments on RMT and RMP use this unvalidated, easily misused "service" to determine whether a person is a good or bad teacher. Teachers constitute the most recent group that people love to hate. Parents, and students, do not want to speak to the teacher directly with questions or comments, but instead go straight to an administrator or a blog, often anonymously. Administrators want to keep the parents happy in order to keep their jobs, so they blithely fire good teachers that students have anonymously slandered. Those parents hear their child's complaints and take it as an objective assessment without checking the information with the only other adult in the mix - the Teacher. Parents who do not deal directly with concerns about a teacher undermine the teacher's ability to work with their children.

I really don't like RMT. If it were a site where students left constructive criticism comments it would be good, because then teachers could take that comment and do something with it. It's the comments that don't explain anything and just say you're terrible that hurt. As a teacher myself, who is relatively new to the profession, I really try to help each and every student in my classroom. I realize that my classes aren't the easiest, but I offer my help to any student that is truly in need of it, especially (but not limited to) if they ask for it. I made the mistake of reading comments left about me. While most were good, some did offer criticisms that I was able to use and change something about what I was doing/not doing in the classroom; but others just seemed as if they had a grudge against me and were out to ruin my reputation as a teacher. It was this that really hurt because it felt like a very personal attack. I realize that everybody is entitled to their opinion and the expression of that opinion, but I am not allowed to slander any student's name, so why are they allowed to slander mine and my reputation because they were unhappy with something I did (I don't even know what it is)? If RMT were a site that offered more constructive opinions or criticisms of teachers then it might actually be beneficial for parents, students, teachers, and administrators to visit and learn from.

I am going into my eighth grade year, and personally, I use this site quite frequently over the summer. I would like to address the fact that if there is a particularly obscene rating of a teacher, there is an option to 'flag' the comment and have it taken down. I find it surprising that some of the teachers who have commented on this page (who have had experience with vulgar or racist comments on RMT) have not made the effort to get the comments removed. I do not base my opinions of a teacher off of RMT, but I do use it to see what students in the past have thought of that teacher. I do keep in mind that not all middle school students are responsible or mature. I also believe that prior suggestions of a "Rate My Students" website is completely childish and ridiculous. You call yourself a teacher? You should know far better than to publicly humiliate a student via the internet. Yes, students should pay teachers the same respect, but many of them do not think before posting on RMT. They're kids, there's always going to be immature ones. What's your excuse?

In addition, I understand that you might think you're doing just fine at your career. However, by no means does that make it true. As a student, I would not want to go onto RMT and give a teacher false credit for making me feel like I learned a great deal in their class.

Do not take RMT this seriously. If you'd like to reference it and see what educated constructive criticism you may get, it won't hurt. If, by any chance, you get an obscene comment, flag it.

I have a premonition that my novella here is going to be immediately unpopular...but I'm not going to pay much attention anyways.

To the 8th grader. Looks like you may make a better teacher than some teachers who have posted on this site. But be aware that you may be labled, Just a kid. What is missing from these posts is the teachers not telling you that it takes a near act of congress to get rid of bad teachers due to tenure. Google it, you'll see what I mean . The good teachers get good ratings. One more time, Do you teachers want respect? Get rid of the losers. Oh I forgot, TENURE.

Reading throught these posts I am both a little surprised and also not surprised. I can read through each one and tell if a teacher, parent, child, or college student wrote them. It's true that children will be children and will say dis credible things but in the long run what does it matter. Children have practicaly no control in public schools as to who their teacher is and it we all no that it is very unlikely that anything will ever come from what they say. AsFor College students however I find RmT to be very helpful. Too many times I have taken classes and found teachers more than lacking in their skills. I at one time had a teacher who literally said that "I am not here to teach. I am here to lecture." This infuriated me so much that I stood up and said "I am Paying One Thousand of my hard earned dollars for you to teach me and if you won't do your job then we have a problem. If I wanted a lecture I would go home and watch the history channel." I am tired of experiencing Teacher after Teacher who simply believe it is their living rite to be respected. You have to earn the respect of each individual student. It is your job to educate them not their job to educate themselves. This of course has no bearing on the many great teachers that are out their that I have had the privilege of learning from. Some of my fondest teachers have been the ones that gave me the greatest challenge.

Don't like a site because it is anonymous and easily manipulated, so your answer is to manipulate it for your side? that is pointless; the only thing your friend would know now is that the site has anonymous bad ratings, and a bunch of fake good ratings. The proper thing to do is reassure your friend that anonymous ratings are not to be trusted, and leave it alone. It is frustrating to have negative things said about you, but as adults, we all have to learn to deal with that type of thing

That being said, I happen to like sites like RMT, having used RateMyProfessors frequently in College. I found it frequently accurate, and more of an indicator of "what to watch for" than "what is true". Additionally, it is often quite easy to sort out the accurate negative comments from the fake ones written purely out of anger. In fact, I think this is a skill that we should *encourage* high-school students to explore and develop. They will do much better in life the earlier they learn to spot the BS from the truth.

"Kids are kids. Sometimes, they do not know what a good teacher is. Some of them truly believe that a good teacher never gives any work and always gives out A's. Is that a good teacher? I don't think so. Furthermore, a bad teacher, to some students, makes kids work for their A's and assignments work because they genuinely care that their students success. Kids are kids. If only the ones that write nasty comments could reconsider ten years later..."

Yeah, not all kids are that stupid. I am a student and no one I know gets mad when they don't get just automatically get A's in the class. Seriously? That was just a ridiculous, stupid, ignorant comment by someone who thinks all kids are idiots. This coming from a student who does not have the highest opinion of most of her classmates. Yet I know most of them don't care enough to go on some site and write a bad review. I find your comment extremely insulting and annoying.

To the person (people) who suggested end of course feedback, most teachers do that and are required to do so. In fact, at my school, it is done anonymously and after final exams are finished so it cannot affect student grades. It also is very helpful in influencing how I plan to approach future groups of students. That said, I personally abhor this site, because in six years of very successful teaching (student test scores through the roof, and generally very good personal relationships with students), I have had all of five students post comments - the most noticeable of them negative. Had I known about this site sooner than just a few weeks ago, I'd have asked entire classes to post beginning back in 2005 so as to more accurately reflect what my teaching is like, rather than to present the view of the three kids I managed to upset in the past few years. As it currently is used, this site is worthless at best. It's hurtful, biased, and presents only a sliver (I've taught about 2,000 kids - yet my reputation is being based on the opinions of 3 of them) of reality. Perhaps coupling these "reviews" with additional data could remedy this problem if the tool were moderated by an adult and required of all students. The most surprising comment to me was that a student in my AP class learned "nothing," yet as a group my students passed the exam at a rate of 90-percent. National average is just 44% - does that sound like I taught nothing?! Anyway, I am ranting a bit here, but in general, there does need to be some oversight. Think about newspapers - it was long ago determined that anonymous letters to the editor are unethical. Why do we think this doesn't apply to new media?

Sounds like you teachers are a little worried,,,,Hmmmm, why is that? Because you think every kid does not tell the truth about you and the way you teach!!!! They have every right to rate you because alot of you teachers think you have the power to bully them. I think rate my teacher is a good site and just maybe all you teachers out their will learn something by it. Ta Ta,,, You have just been graded,,,,,

Sounds to me like you are a highly uneducated person thinking that teachers teach because it gives tham the power to bully kids. There is something wrong with you. RMT website is a disgrace, as are you. It is a tool for kids to bash teacher's that they do not like. Do they have every right to go on there and call a teacher a dike??? I think not. Sounds to me like you are someone with a lot of growing up to do. Ta Ta you have just been graded??? What is that?

if a teacher gets a bad report.. i consider it a good thing. That teacher should take it as incentive to do better and be the best possible. Not every teacher is liked not every person is liked so deal with it. Teachers tell students to deal with it as examples you should the same. What you did was unethical you may have pleased that teacher but other students now go in with high expectations that might not be met..

Just thought some of you shouldknow this. When I taught at oneschool there were several teacherswho would give students extra credit if they wrote positive remarks on RMT. By the way, thesestudents would do it during classwhile the teacher watched.

Yep, that's right folks, teachers are only in it for the HUGE paycheck they get. It's like the easiest job in the word to teach 30+ kids at a time with 60 adults banging on the door everyday just to tell you what a crappy job you're doing. Oh yes, please sign me up for that job! Because you know teachers are in it only for the money and to screw up YOUR child. They wake up just thinking about how they can make your child dumber and how to make your life more miserable by sending home homework. GASP! So yep, I spent over $50,000 in my college tuition and over 5 years in college just so I can sit on my ass and screw up your child. So to be fair, go ahead and rate your teacher, but I think we should have a rate the student and parent. I think a grade for parental support should be on the report card, and a website that rates students should be started. Is this student a pain in the ass? Yes. Argues? Yes. Does homework? Nope. Parent support and follow through? F- Truth hurts doesn't it?

Sorry, going with the counter argument here. We have used rate my teacher VERY successfully for 4 years thru high school.

It is not difficult to read thru the many reviews and tell which ones are miffed students and which ones are legitimate evaluations. Many are from parents. You can track teachers who are having problems when you read and see a dramatic change in reviews over time.

Consistently teachers with low easiness ratings and high everything else have been excellent teachers.

Following that rubric the teachers with high easiness and low everything else have been truly DREADFUL teachers.

In the middle ratings the verbiage becomes more important to assess the quality of teaching you can expect

OVERALL, with intelligent application, those ratings do not lie.

She is in college now and has a fabulous selection of professors courtesy of rate my professor.

If you are a teacher and your ratings do not reflect how you view your performance perhaps you need to reassess yourself.

Lets start a campaign to get rate my teacher site removedIt is really bad and is a form of bullying teachers!Children can write what they want, when they want to, it would be very inappropriate to have a site about rate our pupils, would they like that? Well this is exactly the same!Do you not agreeThere are other ways to evaluate teachers performance

"Let's start a campaign to get rate my teacher site removed." Please, let's do this.

I work REALLY hard at teaching, I really do. I am at school 50-60 hours a week while we all know teachers who come and go when the bell rings, working only 35 hours/wk. I tell friends and family how much I love and am passionate about teaching and really try to reach out to kids through extra curriculars, etc. I am anti-union and if I thought I was slacking or really sucked at teaching, then I agree I should be fired. However I work hard and though I'm still learning, I KNOW I'm not a bad teacher-

Well, two kids went on to RMT a day apart and decided to write the first two comments about me-- both very negative, and very hurtful. Now there's nothing I can do to get rid of them. The people at the site won't respond to my "contact" requests to remove my name. Freedom of speech, whatever-- I'm a person, not a business, not a politician, not running for office, not soliciting online comments-- and I have NO control over this.

This seriously is a privacy issue and maybe would set precedence for other Internet sites? I feel that the Internet has somewhat changed Freedom of Speech.... Taking down hurtful unsolicited comments about a person- as a PERSON, not a politician- is NOT censorship.

"if a teacher gets a bad report.. i consider it a good thing. That teacher should take it as incentive to do better and be the best possible."

Oh really? A student wrote that I was "acquard."(Translation: awkward.) It is a thing in our school lately to call EVERYTHING awkward. Is that a good thing? Should I take that as incentive to do better? Sometimes comments are just hurtful. (Also this student's comment shows just how young they are, as he/she could not spell awkward!)

RMT is not such a bad thing. Spiteful and untrue comments should be treated with the contempt they deserve, but I don't think that the vast majority of children are so malicious and there are a lot of truthful comments (both good and bad) on here.

RMT gives children a platform to voice their opinions about their interaction with a particular teacher. In many cases, this is extremely positive and teachers are praised for being inspiring, for making lessons interesting or for taking particular time and trouble to help a struggling student.

Where comments are negative, I would urge teachers to try to look at these objectively. They may help to identify a problem!

I have just looked up the comments for one music teacher who has had a problematic history at our local secondary school. The comments from children are extremely negative but they are not unfounded. There are reports of pupil bullying, of violent behaviour (hurling chairs around the classroom) and mood swings. Even the talented musicians amongst them have been put off taking this subject at GCSE level which is such a shame. The school has simply downplayed/ignored concerns raised by parents. My own children's experiences of this teacher were just as bad, but they did happen to mention he was an insulin dependant diabetic and incidentally report that this teacher keeps/drinks lots of Lucozade in class. They would not realise the relevance of this, but poor control of blood sugar could medically explain his conduct. It is such a shame (for both the teachers and the pupils) that some schools have the "teacher can do no wrong philosopy". The school should be acknowledging that there is a problem and giving this teacher some help and support...for everyone's sake!

...don't get me wrong, I would certainly not advocate the opposite: the "teacher is guilty until proved innocent" scenario, but I feel that a little more of an impartial approach is more constructive than a "closed shop" mentality.

Many parents and children do not like to complain or raise concerns (okay I'm sure that there are a minority that do, but I think the vast majority are more like me). Many people worry about being "labelled" as a complainer and children worry in case there are repercussions of complaints on them!

So please, do not view every negative comment as a malicious slur. This is simply not the case. Please try to be objective...if comments can lead to teachers identifying problems with themselves or their colleagues....and if these problems can be addressed, surely this is not such a bad thing.

I had not heard of RMT until I caught a boy trying to put up flyers about it on a the wall near my classroom. I told him that only school sponsored events can be posted on building walls. He took it down and left in a huff.

I later saw these flyers elsewhere on campus and reported to the dean about my interaction with the boy.

A couple days later I decided to look on RMT and saw I had a poor rating. I had only 5 ratings and they all were dated within the 2 days of this confrontation. Several made references to my lack of support of free speech.

This boy wasn't even one of my students.

I also noticed that one colleague that is a great teacher and well liked by the students doesn't even have any ratings at all. So I do think that RMT is used primarily by those with a gripe.

If there is really a teacher that is doing poorly, then the students and parents need to bring it to the administrators and approach it in a mature way and RMT is not it.

I have seen several comments about rating students/parents. I have also seen several comments stating that students are rated in report cards. The difference between rating teachers on RMT and rating students in a report card is that the report card is not rated anonymously and that in 19 years of teaching, I have yet to see a comment on a report card that said the student sucked or had a %^&* attitude. Comments are written with respect for the student and parent. However, the biggest difference between RMT postings and report cards is that schools do not publish report cards for the entire city, state, country, or world to view. It is specifically for the people involved. So just like the high school or middle school students do not have very many options to choose their teachers, the teachers have absolutely no options to choose the students. Teachers are given a list of students they will teach, and they try to work with them: point, blank, and period.

Personally, I have a hard time taking RMT seriously. I actually think it fits in perfectly with the Neo-Con agenda of underminding civil servants and wouldn't be surprised if it were sponsored by folks who support the privatization of education (and everything else for that matter) and reducing teachers to clerical staff rather than trained professionals. For a good laugh, read those anonymous comments from teenagers whose frontal lobes are not fully developed (according to the brain research I've read) and who reside in a state of narcissism and are therefore somewhat incapable of contextualizing their educational experiences or taking FULL responsibility for their own contribution to their learning (and no, I was no different at their age, but I am from a different generation where my parents reminded me of my responsibility rather than believing and enabling all of my self centred adolescent narrative). The comments say as much about the writers themselves as their teachers.

On another note, I've emailed the RMT people 4times to get my name removed (I no longer teach at the school I'm listed at and have in fact changed my teaching area) and have had no response. Does anyone actually work there? Has anyone been able to delist themselves? (The school I was at now lists Principal Skinner and Chuck Norris among others as illustrious instructors - it's a very well taken care of website!! ;)

Ok. After I posted my last comment, I started to get curious about WHO runs RMT? Interesting that it is anonymous, yes? Here is the link to the info I found on its IP address - http://www.ip-adress.com/reverse_ip/174.120.49.148 - but no info on who actually owns the site. (Yes, I used to be a public librarian and now I'm VERY curious). Why don't they name themselves? And how do we find out who runs it? (You know they're in it for the advertising money). Anyone else want to investigate?

So…. A student who leaves an extremely abusive comment about my performance, has rights. Yes, I agree that he/ she has “rights” but the teacher does… also.

I believe a great teacher should not get perfect scores from all students, especially based on the RMT categories. These are young minds with not a lot of experiences or well-rounded/ mature perspectives on job performances. The opinions are coming from a child or young adult (who “usually” is trying to get out of working, unless it’s entertaining). They have no training or awareness to the time that it takes to put into a teacher's performance, from PowerPoint’s, historical research, worksheets, teacher strategies (some lessons taking a ½ hr, some weeks, or a summer)... much less the rubric, scorecards, number crunching and teacher comments (written and electronic) that goes into their grade(s). A student (sometimes a parent) only sees a finished product; like a TV Show. Needing to be entertained and ... disciplined.

After my demo, I walk around my classroom to make sure all my 35 to 39 students are feeling successful with help from me or a peer-tutor. Or work with them privately, so I don’t embarrass the student and explain. I give my students second chances on behaviors and late excuses on assignments (life happens). But I do explain, this is extra work for me that I thought I had finished.

These three boys who recently gave me bad reviews … have behavior problems in class (which is probably repeated in their other classes), from stealing their work off the Internet, talking while I'm giving instructions, off-task (asking for extensions on their assignments) to sexually harassing a peer.

So… I have the right and obligation to protect the majority of my pupils and discipline these students (children that have new adult bodies). After 2 decades of teaching, there is always a handful of individuals, that want to spread their wings and feel the power of their opinion and misbehavior. (Immaturity always wants revenge, maturity want an explanation for the situation.)

No, "I" do not give much value to these 3 negative opinions on RMT. They are intelligent young men that once had my respect. But when they ended up seating next to each other, they started showing-off to each other, which leads to misbehavior. (They have been moved on the seating chart 3 times.)

I had these offensive comments removed from the web site. Yes! Had them removed! It was easy. I flagged it, and explained why (labels such as: vulgar, name-calling, personally abusive, etc.) in the comment box. One to three hours later the “pending” status was removed and the comment was gone.

On Tuesday, I will pull the students aside and ask questions that I would want to know (face to face) … concerns they are struggling in class, to what is making them feel so negative. “What happened?” Also, about their online comments from "want to punch a baby” to bragging of assignment cheating. I respect honesty, but be careful of its presentation. Then, explain/ educate these young-ones that slander and threats of violence is against the law and I can sue them and their parents.

At any age, each individual wants respect and honor. It is still valued, from a student to an old “tenured” teacher.

The person who wrote this blog post needs to grow the hell up. Your friend is a poor teacher. And Rate Your Professor proved it. Tell your friend to man up to her behavior and stop having her friends go on Rate Your Professor to jack up her points. You are no better than a student who went on there and posted untrue negative comments. The thing is, those negative comments were true. How do I know? Because your friend is friends with a dishonest person. That dishonest person is YOU. Only a dishonest person would be friends with another dishonest person. So that tells me your friend is doing everything those negative comments said she was doing.

I have a friend who I've been friends with since we were kids. She studied her whole live to become a an English professor and she's horrible. I love her to death, but she cant teach. She lacks social skills, empathy, and has always been stuck in the box of academia. She has no real world skills that would allow her to be an effective communicator to teach. Needless to say, she now has a regular day job in an office. She may have wanted to teach, but she doesn't have the personality for it.

The part that teacher's are clearly missing here is that they think their teaching skills are adequate. They aren't. If they were, no one would write negative comments about them. Teachers have been ruling over students since the beginning of time, and students have had to put up with unfair treatment because the teacher thinks they have the ultimate authority no matter what. Teachers get to give grades without any say or feedback from the student. Whatever grade the teacher puts on a report card, stands. No matter what that grade is. If the teacher gives an F, that F stays on the students transcript forever. A 30 year old who decides to go back to school still has to put up with an F on their transcripts that they received when then were 14. How is that fair? But yet an inexperienced teacher who wants to throw their weight around and power trip, gets to say what grade someone should get. But my, how the times have changed. Now that same student can turn around and give that teacher a grade they think the teacher deserves. And that grade goes on the internet for all to see. The student finally has a say. The same teacher who gave an F that will be on someone's transcript forever, is now getting an F that will be on the internet forever. Both, transcripts and the internet, are two very important things that people take seriously that last forever. So now the teacher and the student are even. It's called karma.

There's nothing wrong with Rate Your Professors. If you're a teacher worth something, you won't have to worry about anything. I go on that site and I post negative comments about whatever instructor I've had who I felt treated me unfairly. If I received a low grade in a class that I know I didn't perform well in, then I have no basis to complain. and I don't. I just have to swallow that hard pill. But if I know I performed well and still received a low grade, then yes I'm going to complain about it on a public website if I was unable to resolve the issue with the teacher or the school. It's funny how students get ignored by teachers and schools UNTIL they put some negative stuff up on Rate Your Professor. Teachers and school have the opportunity to make good with disgruntled students. They chose not to. So unfortunately the student has no other choice but to go to Rate Your Professor to get their point across.

The best part about Rate Your Professor is that it is ANONYMOUS! That means ALL teachers will have to treat ALL students fairly because the teacher has no idea who will write what on Rate Your Professor. I love that system and it's more than fair.

The only people complaining about Rate Your Professor are the lousy teachers who like to power trip. If you have the balls to dish out unfair treatment to your students, you should have the balls to take it.

i went to this college to get my welding degree and certs so i could pipe weld i was injured and was basically told they wouldnt do anything after 8 months i had no symptoms from my electocution until then i hav'nt been the same sense hav'nt been able to work i have have medical problems like no being able to remember things muscle tremors and possible nerve damage i can't afford to live nor do for my kids all because of this college how far is it that they did'nt take responsabilty for one of there students that was injuried while in class i also got blamed for being on a teacher computer that i was'nt on he was looking a shit he should not have been a blamed me so he would not get into trouble for it i got more attention for the computer incodent than i did when i got electrocuted due to there faulty equipment i got suspended from a cert class for 4 days that i could not make up so i failed this class i would not got back here so wht do you think about that i am injured for the rest of my life and they got of scott freei also took the autocad 13 class cecuria is the teacher he does'nt seem to want to teach you he told the class at the start of the semester help your nebiors i dont concider that cheating but he does he told me i cheated when all i got was help from another student he chased stundentsout of his class that he didnt seam to like what knda crap is that

I've looked on the website and I actually agree with some of the reviews in our school... I understand that not all students can be mature, but many of us can tell the difference between teachers who just waste time during class and not give homework because she is too lazy to collect,read, or give a grade and teachers who really wants to teach us something. We rarely get a chance to say something about our teachers and better our education. I think all teachers should look into this website to better their teachings and better our education or possibly be used for employment. I think it should be used for something. I don't think its fair that some good teachers are being paid same as the bad teachers.

seriously you don't look anything like a competent student by the way you have posted your reply. You have so man errors that I see you must have serious trouble with the english language. You may want to put that down to an excuse on your supposed tremors but your mistakes are quite consistent with trying to spell them rather than simple errors.

I really think you need to have a hard look at yourself as to why you probably had so much difficulty within the school rather than as it seem to be the norm blame someone else for all the problems.

RMT is a rotten site used for gripping not complimenting. How many parents or students go on to compliment a teacher? But there are some parents going on to write something negative anonymously because their kid doesn't like a teacher or the grade they got.

Good teachers, who expect students to show effort shouldn't be subject to a dysfunctional person's opinion.

I would like to have the ability to leave negative feedback at a parent's workplace if their child does something wrong at high school, is disrespectful, rude or unkind socially.

Anoymous how about you be brave and leave your name. People shouldn't be hiding unless they need to hide from some thing. Also two rights do not equal a wrong. Everyone is and should be accountable for work.

Putting this tool in the hands of vulnerable and sometimes misguided Middle School students is a danger. Any good teacher in their right mind would want to go the extra mile to ensure all their students enjoy a safe, secure and empowering experience in class. However, in some cases, all it takes is a misconstrued comment or a sudden onslaught on homework to turn a 13 year old into a vicious RMT evaluator.

My only advice for teachers is to grow a thicker skin and be aware that we are in the age of social media. Social media has linked people together, brought family members closer, made connections with like-minded people...but also destroyed relationships, fuelled resentment towards others and permitted young people from showing utter disrespect to elders.

Teachers are in the public eye and have been the object of scrutiny for centuries. Comes with the professional. Deal with it.

Dear Pissed Off;I realize you probably have no way of confirming this but I was the one who posted the comment above on Feb. 18. After some thought would you be so kind as to replace this one with the following response below in quotation marks?

"I too was upset when I recently read the comments on the site until I realized that there were good comments too.

Most students who do like you have other things in their lives to do than go on this site. In my experience, the kind students either tell me personally how they feel or they put it in writing through a thank you note. Parents do too!

The best way for me to improve is for one to have a calm face-to-face discussion with me - parents and students alike!"

Thank you changing this for me and thanks for allowing us to comment. This comment is for you and not to be shared with the public. Bye!

Let's face it, teachers. We're in a day when teachers are increasingly seen as public enemy number one. I am a veteran teacher who has earned awards for my work. I have a masters in English and have been approached in public restaurants by former students who have told me how much I meant to them during their developmental high school years. One young man had tears in his eyes, and we embraced then. My wife told me that no one in the private sector knows what that moment is like. She's right. However, this Rate My Teacher has become a sounding board for the underachieving student who feels maligned. If students looking back at say, age 25 (once reflection occurs in the adult), were allowed to post comments that required a name, then the site would have credibility. I personally have two positive comments and two negative comments on my rating. The one comment I know came from a student who was not permitted to turn in a paper late without a penalty, because I stand on the principle that the group and its fair treatment trumps the rights of the individual, no matter how much a student may see his or her treatment as 'unfair.' It's that notion that has seemingly lost popularity in America, a country where at times it appears that raising our young has gone off track. I point at the droves of helicopter parents who interfere with the maturation and seasoning of their children by taking issue with teachers who are teaching them life lessons in addition to an academic ones or skills. Conversely, some parents could care less because they are dealing with their own life issues--substance abuse, broken families, joblessness, etc. The summative effect of all this is that one of the last vestiges of authority--teaching--has become the whipping boy of today's society. Be careful what you wish for. Remember, a vacation from teaching 100 kids everyday is necessary for anyone who's done it. And, for the supporters of the super-rich right, just remember that making $50,000 isn't a sin. Teachers earn it with stress and in some districts, physical danger. Bad teachers exist. Bad lawyers exist. Bad plumbers, pilots, managers, etc. I have witnessed a few in my time, and yes, they were shown the door by concerned administrators doing their job. I will write plainly to close; I am tired of the vilification of teachers. I am currently applying for employment outside the field of teaching. When the value of doing what I do is trumped by wage freezes, pay cuts, invasive politicians, meddling legislation, and lawyer-happy parents, the job loses its appeal. I am confident I am not alone. And when the tipping point is reached and enough talented educators have either left or young aspiring professionals have avoided teaching, the schools may be staffed by mindless goons, like the blogger on this site who hates teachers and remains nameless.

Well said Steve Smith. I agree with just about all of what you wrote. I have been teaching for 20 years and really enjoy it. Personally I find RMT to be a waste of time. It just gives little brats a chance to have their five cents worth.

I wonder if we should not start up Rate My Students. Of course it would be stricly anonymous just like it is for us. I would love to see how the would respond when they were on the receiving end.

I'm a teacher.I love my job and I love my students. In my experience the vast majority of teachers do their best everyday. They are bombarded with sometimes unrealistic expectations, but they power on trying to motivate, trying to counsel, trying to teach and trying to win the affection of all different types of students, parents and colleagues. I think we all can agree that teaching is a tough job. I know we've all had teachers that we didn't like, but is defaming these people on the internet an ethical way to deal with this? No. It is cowardly and unfair. Just like students, teachers need positive reinforcement to continue to grow and learn in their profession. We are people. Consider your own profession / occupation. How would you feel if your performance review was public and wasn't even posted by another professional? RMT needs to go. It is extremely unethical.

It's the defamation, publishing of names, and anon. that is so disconcerting. It is starting to be proven that these sites are also used in cyberabuse campaigns by students. A study in Britain showed that three web sites are most used for this: Rate My Teacher, Facebook and You Tube. Documented are also increasing attacks on teachers in the classroom as evidenced by Cyberbaiting. Suicides are on the rise for teachers. Studies also found that teachers showed the same depression, pts etc. that students do after being cyberbullied. When it's combined with the physical danger teachers daily face, it becomes entrapment. I don't know what the answer is except maybe a campaign against bulling of teachers as aggressive as the one for students.

As a teacher, I take great pride in what and how I teach, and the positive teacher-student relationships I work so hard to establish. Despite the ridiculous nature of RMT (yes, I know I shouldn't even waste my time by logging on), I still get hurt when nasty comments are posted. No matter what we, as adults, may think, my children, their friends and my students do like to see what is being said about teachers they know. I am currently receiving hideous comments from a difficult ex-parent who, after years of giving grief to myself and other teachers at the school, chose to send her children elsewhere. She is bitter and angry with the school - there is an ongoing courtcase regarding unpaid school fees. There is no doubt that she is the one posting the negative ratings - the comments she leaves are lengthy and describe details specific to her children. However, she cannot be stopped. My school is being wonderfully supportive to those of us affected (the principal herself has received some of the most scathing comments from this mother on RMT), but even this does not remove the anger, frustration and hurt I, and others, are experiencing. We, as educators, are constantly trying to teach our students about, and protect them from, bullying (particularly cyber-bullying). Each week, I receive phone calls and emails from parents asking for help with online incidents concerning their children. My school, the parents and our students are working together to minimise (eradication, unfortunately, seems impossible) this spiteful, cowardly and illegal behaviour, and yet we, the teachers, have to put up with being on the receiving end ourselves. The unfairness of this astounds and disappoints me.

I agree. I have been a teacher for 8 years. Although I have gotten great reviews, I am appalled by RMT. It has been particularly upsetting the past couple of years knowing that RMT, coupled with other factors, has played a role in teacher suicides and depression. It is a form of cyber bullying. The site is unmonitored, making it extremely dangerous. I agree that students should be granted the opportunity to provide feedback to teachers, but through an evaluation system that is more informative and valuable to the teacher and administration. I would love to see teachers (and the community) rally together to close down RMT and stop the bullying and harrassment of teachers.

Rate your teacher site can not really work effectively in its current implementation. Ok, I confess I am biased. Here is my experience. My wife is really very experienced teacher and I know she is good teacher because of the feedback and signs of appreciation she constantly gets from parents,not to mention her advanced degree and professional accomplishments in the field she is teaching. So, I go on the site and read "she blows. worst teacher ever, just fire her and save the money". I tried to report this rating. There was no reaction. I guess it did not cross their treshold of vulgar and offensive. Do you think this site should be taken serioulsy? Seriously.

i find as a teacher who is considered effective, creative and articulate receiving comments from students with behavioural problems and, surprisingly, other teachers who oare threatened by my positive comments received. What I have noticed in teaching is that schools can be a dumping ground for lazy, superannuation-hungry turgid types who are ineffective. Having foul negative comments up that are untrue, that detail my workplace up for all stalkers to see is of concern. Am obtaining legal action for this latter concern presently.

As an effective, creative, inspirational teacher I have been praised, bruised, abused on this vulgar site. I have been stalked in the past (legal issues, serious-business!) and each time a student (or jealous colleague) comments on RMT site, my rating pops up - I'm SO easy to trace. Lacks everything - obviously set up by anonymous fools who should be traced - any good IT hackers out there? let's track 'em!

Just instead of trashing rate my teacher lets look at something from a students end. I understand that its harsh on teachers but also there has been a great deal with the way students take classes based on previous students remarks. If a teacher is honest, fair, and overall care about their students they would rarely get a bad comment. Also the good ones would well over rule the bad ones. I've never seen a bad comment on a good teacher that i've had. That should tell you something.

I went in to Adsense (click Adsense) at the bottom where their advertisements are place. Ticked off That the site promotes Racial intolerance, advocacy against and individual, group or organization and wrong the following in additional information:

This site (ratemyteacher)attacks teachers publicly as it allows ANYONE to post comments anonymously. There is NO accountability or responsibility for this site and it destroys people's reputation after years of GIVING to the students.

By promoting your ads on this site, this helps the site in promoting unjust attacks on ALL teachers in the world. Please consider taking your ads down to show that google has strong moral ethics leading by example by promoting the future in a fair and positive way.

IF YOU AGREE TO THIS, DO THE SAME . If all of us unite together google may not support this site which is the reason for its existence to make money through ads.

Another useless website.Administrators who look at this site validate what most teachers think of administrators.I had more than one bad teacher, and I went to private schools and a very exclusive university. You learn to deal with it -- just like in real life. Wait until the spoiled students who are mouthing off on a website get a boss who is rotten. How will they cope? Will they go out and post a review on "Rate My Bosses?" Students today are spoiled, and this website facilitates it.

I challenge everyone who has posted on this website that teachers should suck up the poor performance reviews and grow a thicker skin to publish their work email addresses. Chances are, they are not subjected to an anonymous performance review where dissatisfied customers can vent their frustrations without validation. I just ran a test on RMT website and was able to randomly choose a teacher and post, without any verification whatsoever. Also, one might one to check one's spelling before one posts. Certainly does not make you sound like a point of authority of how much teachers are the bane of existence, when you cannot spell basic words.

For those of you bashing teachers, you might want to check your spelling. Not a very strong case when you obviously weren't paying attention to the basics. There are always going to be good teachers and bad teachers. It is up to the student to decide what experience s/he is going to take from the class. Don't understand the lesson; ask for clarification. Want additional information, it can be found in your textbook or crazy thought: online or at your public library. Anyone who says that they cannot get a good education in the US is lazy and is looking for an excuse as to why they are where they are in life. Maybe if we ackowledged that the information is there in any public school for those students who WANT to learn, will do so.

I know there are students who think I'm mean. But I teach 7th grade, have you ever seen the attitudes of some of those kids? They are rude and disrespectful, they want to talk instead of listen. It's not fair to those who want to learn. I don't think students should be rating teachers, if you have a complaint about a teacher go to the school principal, if that doesn't work go higher. But any allegations against a teacher must give the teacher a chance to tell their story. I see many ratings for GOOD teachers on here as very low. The only students who think I am mean and not doing my job are those who wish for me to just give them a passing grade and not care about what they learn.

Listen, students do go on there and write mean things sometimes just to get back at a teacher, but they may have also written these negative comments because they're true. Students have a right to share their opinions- you have never sat in her class, and she may be the nicest, most hilarious friend in the world and the worst teacher in history. Please don't do that.

Have you actually gone on their website? They say that surprisingly 60% of the comments are positive. I myself have written both negative and positive comments about teachers. Sure, there are people who totally abuse the system, but honestly, it's very easy to sort out the rage-filled comments written by a kid who's mad they got a bad grade on a test from the thoughtful, articulate reviews from students giving their honest opinions on teachers. The system isn't a free for all, it is moderated and you can flag abusive comments that include profanity, references to the teacher's personal life/appearance, etc.

I don't think there should be a RMT for anything before high school however; 11 year olds have not really matured yet. Honestly though, teacher suicide and depression? Yikes- people committing suicide is not caused by some scathing anonymous critiques from 12 year olds, it's caused by a chemical imbalance and other underlying issues. If someone is that fragile, they should not be exposing themselves to such situations where they could come to be resented.

Overall, RMT is often a very, very useful resource for students that can sometimes be abused. But then again- teachers abuse their power all the time. I'm not sure what it's like where you people live, but I have NEVER heard of any administration using RMT as a resource for judging a teacher. They accredit us students with as much intelligence as dog poop, basically. If this were true and they did in fact use RMT, half the teachers in my school would be gone. It is unfortunate that a good system can fall into bad hands, but honestly if you are confident that you are a good, creative teacher you should not be worried about it. Honestly though? Most of the "good" teachers in my school (ones that the students like, teach the material well, good sense of humor, etc.) could care less if someone doesn't like them- they are confident in their abilities. It seems like some of the livid teachers posting on here should take a page...

One more thought- if you propose that we take down rate my teachers, well then you better be on the bandwagon to remove any reviews for doctors, lawyers, restaurants, etc. because those can be abused as well. You see my point? Sure, kids can often be immature but there is a flag button and RMT WILL take down inappropriate reviews if you flag them and they are truly inappropriate. Some teachers on here (the ones calling students "scum" who rate them poorly) perfectly exemplify the need for such a site- you can reflect all of that vengeful anger in their grade. A grade that will be sent to colleges, and just the few points you docked from their GPA could cost them a scholarship or college admission. And you're sitting here moaning and screaming about RMT?

p.s. to the little stalking anecdote- are you serious? Of course, really not okay for a student to stalk and attack her, but once again- THIS IS NOT RMT'S FAULT. This is the fault of the deranged student who stalked and attacked her. This information is readily accessible through any search engine (ever heard of white pages?) Nope- it's RMT's fault for having a public venue on the internet-how dare them.

Honestly, the people posting these hateful comments (on the blog, not on RMT) either a) are actually bad teachers or b) extremely sensitive; sensitive enough to take the petty insults of an angry 14 year old to heart. Come on- be the adults here.

Anonymous said...When are we going to have the site, "Rate My Student"?

7:46 PM, November 02, 2010

okay, it was a little while ago... But the answer is: every single grade, on every single aspect of participation, attendance, performance, and, output. Teachers rate students. That's it. Every single part of a young human's life depends on those ratings. Futures are decided, self-esteem is created or destroyed, and decisions about aptitude for future careers are made, based on those evaluations/grades. teachers who truly value what they do...do not have to find other ways to rate students. They should be looking at new ways to educate, to reach, to help those students to exceed, to grow, to be excellent.

I am the subject of several comments recently posted on the Rate My Teacher site within days of each other. It is obvious they have been written by the same person. Whilst I have no concrete evidence to prove it, I know who this person is - not a student (I teach seven year olds), but a vexatious parent who has caused trouble for me since the start of the school year. The comments made are untrue and she has gone so far as to create a scenario and an alleged reaction from me which has never occurred. Her comments are stated as factual, not her opinion and she warns other parents against allowing their child to be placed in my class in the future. If this site is legal and moderated, how is it that these malicious comments have been allowed to be posted? I believe I would have a reasonable case for defamation, should I eventually prove it was indeed her who is responsible. I'm all for freedom of speech, but also believe people need to be held accountable for what they say or publish, especially if they are untrue, baseless allegations.

I had a teacher for a computer class who came to EVERY class late without notice. He would stand in front of the class and talk about himself, his kids, his wife, pro basketball, youtube....anything but what he was supposed to be talking about: computer hardware. During class we watched youtube videos of kitties on skateboards, deadbeats drinking beer and lighting farts, fat women at Walmart, whatever....When it came time to do the labs (there was supposed to be 11 of them-we did 1) he would dismiss the class early. I learned nothing from him-NOTHING!! Sorry...I learned that Charles Barkley is not a role model; OK?!? I complained to his immediate supervisor (Head of the Department) who called me a whiner. I complained to the Dean who asked me "Is there anyone on the faculty who I like?". I complained to the Dean of Students who asked me to comment "Off the Record". I am a straight A student who is reasonably intelligent, does his assignments early, helps other people, works extremely hard almost all of the time. Every single teacher (except bozo guy) I ever had has offered to write me a recommendation; most of them without having been asked. I do not expect teachers to be perfect and I have reasonable expectations of people, in general, almost all of the time. This teacher is so bad that no one, reasonable or unreasonable, would ever want him teaching anything to their child. So instead of canning this idiot (the teacher), the school is about to give him tenure. Where, please tell me, other than 'Rate My Teacher' does someone like me go to tell this story?

Here's the dirty little secret: You may not believe me but this is not a solo experience; it is pervasive. You would not believe the stories I have heard about other teachers and the stories I could tell you about teachers I was lucky to avoid because there was an alternative to their 'class'. Not the majority of teachers but a significant minority. Incompetent teachers are destroying your profession. THEY ARE the problem. Period. Some of your friends, who many of you defend, aren't the teachers that many of you think they are and should do something else before they harm more students. And you all should stop whining about 'Rate My Teacher' and do something about your so-called colleagues who refuse to leave and no does anything about.

What you did was, as you say yourself, unethical....and unjust. The whole point of the website is to rate teachers honsetly from students who have had the teacher...not their friends who have bias opinions of their personality...not their teaching.

These students have the right to their opinion...and maybe she is an aweful teacher...i had many teachers that should have been fired by either aweful/inappropriate teaching methods, sharing their political agenda, talking about personal life.......but this site can finally contribute ridding the injustice and unproductive nature of the nation's school system.

You never had your friend as a teacher....and you rated multiple times...what does that say about you? Words are only hurtful if you let them be...your teacher/friend shouldn't care a sh*t about what other students have to say and keep teaching their best if they were truly committed to their job and status as a teacher

RMT is NOT scientific. It is a survey that some students chose to respond to. Much of the time,only disgruntled students respond. Many, many more students who LIKE their teachers don't always take the time to leave comments on this site or don't know about it.

Rate my teacher is a garbage site for all pi$$ed off students to vent. It does not require any indentification from anyone posting. All teachers should keep an eye on it and report the slanderous and liable things posted there.

I agree with most of the people on here.... I own my own business and have dedicated my life to kids. I have a competitor who decided to post that I work at 7 different schools and posted bad ratings about me just to give me a bad reputation. I've tried to contact rate your teacher, they could care less about facts. I wish there was something I could do but there's not. I believe you reap what you sow. but in the meantime I feel powerless

Shame on you for handling your issue with a teacher in such a cowardly fashion. Were YOU in the room when such incidences occurred? Amazing to me what parents believe from their kids. While there certainly are some bad teachers out there, there are plenty of awful kids and even worse parents. Instead of annonymously trashing a teacher's reputation, address it directly. I detest rate my teacher. It is unmonitored garbage!

Those of us who truly do our best in the classroom should have no problem deciphering ugly ratings as coming from students who are sore at us for disturbing their "dope-smoking and self-pleasuring" time. I do see a few instructors talking down to students (in college) which, in my humble opinion, is whack.

We are awash in reviews with Yelp, Ebay, Amazon and so on. I don't think that anyone should have immunity. RTM s mainly to see what the kids can expect, and it gives students an outlet for expression. I wouldn't get caught up in thinking people will take the negative rants as gospel. It's too bad there isn't a chance to reply like on Ebay.

Shame on you for replying in a cowardly way. Every parent should believe there own kid. We are our childrens voice. If I got my way (which I will get my way believe me) I would have live feed cameras in every classroom for parents to watch. If a parent doesn't want their kids face on it will be scrambled. With this economy the teacher should be doing 100% or step down and let a teacher without a job do it. Teachers these day think they can act any way they want because of how they are protected by unions. If a teacher is having a bad day, be an adult and take a day off. It is completely unprofessional and unacceptable to yell and scream at your students. If you can't address a student who is misbehaving without raising your voice then you are in the wrong profession.

The comments by students can be very hurtful, especially when you've gone out of your way to be fair and judicious as a teacher. I just saw a comment about me on RMF where the kid had dropped the class only a week into the semester and he/she essentially called me a charlatan. That is really uncalled for since A) I have been teaching for over five years, and b) he/she never took the time to see the course through in order to make an informed assessment of my abilities. But in any case I'm not deterred from my passion. It is just frustrating that some kid made such an assessment without seeing how the class unfolded.

I couldn't stomach all of these comments. I read some at the top and some at the bottom. I've been a student, I've been a teacher, I've supervised and managed teachers, and now I am a student again at 50 years old. Through all of these years, I've learned that teachers are absolutely perfect. They believe they can do no wrong.

Rate my teacher / professor is for the audience of the STUDENT, not for the teacher. It's for the student deciding to sign up for your class. If you're not overly sensitive, you can read over the comments and decide if you want some HONEST feedback that your peers will never dare give you.

As I look through some teachers, and see the some comments for years, I have to wonder why the teacher and their supervisor has not addressed that problem yet . . . Do you know why?

When students rate teachers well based on the comment "we don't anything in class" or "we never have homework", I have some concerns about the credibility of the reviews. As a 25 year veteran of teaching, I've received both positive and negative comments. The negative one's I take with a grain of salt and try to keep in mind that besides my curriculum I also responsible for managing 35+ students five times a day. Can't make all happy.As far as the principal using RMT as a tool for determine the value of a teacher, I'm not surprised. Those that can't teach become administrators.

Rate my teacher is a great tool for parents. Shame on those who write fake reviews to make a friend look better. You aren't in the classroom. I look at it this way, if a teacher has negative comments that go back years and the negatives repeat through the years, they are trouble. I just saw a teachers ratings that my son has complained about. She has the same complaints going back over 10 years! Teachers should not get away with bad behavior.

To all those teachers crying about being rated on the internet, you can move to North Korea and execute anyone who threatens your ego. For the rest of the teachers who believe in freedom of speech, use harsh ratings to fix your teaching, because more likely than not, your teaching sucks.

How nice of you to assume your friend is a good teacher and pose as a parent or student online to post fake testimonials in order to make a real complaint from a real parent or student irrelevant. Perhaps you dont know your friend as well as you think. It just seems wrong for you to decide someone else's post must be fake so you drown it with fake posts of your own.

That is very kind of you to go on and rate your fellow teacher in a positive light. Some teachers really deserve it.However, if you are a teacher and see a negative comment about you, learn to take it. Seriously, grow up. People talk about what they think is true, and chances are that if you have a bad review, there’s a reason behind it. Stop whining. If you suck at teaching, you might as well know. It's not you that's suffering, after all. It’s the students, and their grades. You are truly not fit to be a teacher, if you are having problems dealing with a little criticism. If you have a problem with it, go out into the real world once in a while. No hate on teachers, but I have certainly more than once rated extremely negatively on teacher's pages. Others deserve to know what the heck they are getting into, and how to prepare themselves for it. I, as well as many other students, am sick of all the bad teaching. This a heavily used resource by so many, and honestly, it works, we love it. Crying about it won’t rid the internet of it, so you might as well learn to take criticism and APPLY it to your teaching style. Frankly, i'm pissed off about how teachers are taking it. If they are truly lacking in areas, it should be their obligation to take these into account. (I am, of course, referring to the sensible negative comments on RMT. There is the occasional doorknob to be ignored)

I don't really think you can know how good a teacher is unless you have to learn from them. I do agree that some of the comments on RMT are pretty harsh but I think if every post says the teacher is awful there's something to it. I get that you didn't want your friend to be upset but I think you had no right to go on and try to change their rating. I've had teachers that are the most wonderful kind caring people but they just cannot get the point across and are awful at teaching, but not bad people.

I am a highschool graduate and I think Rate my teacher is degrading and to put it bluntly, a medium for bullying teachers. All the people that support RMT with crap like ‘students are entitled to the right to free speech’ you do realize that they aren’t allowed to spread hate speech, right? First off, I’ve had teachers who probably didn’t really care about teaching and only came in everyday because it was their job and absolutely brilliant, dedicated and wonderful teachers who I now visit sometimes on my days off. If I had such an issue with the former, it would be most plausible to go up to them and TALK to them about the issue or go with my parents. NOT be a sissy who vents their feelings anonymously on some stupid site created by a bunch of stupid children. A teacher’s job is hard enough. I’ve seen this first hand…one time I walked into the applied calc class to ask my calculus teacher about our upcoming test and MAN OH MAN was she EVER PATIENT WITH THEM. There was this one girl that decided it was ok to go up to the teacher’s laptop (attached to the projector and go on her youtube channel, putting on a video of herself laughing) and my teacher just asked her repeatedly to stop in the most restrained voice you can with someone like that…Anyways, a lot of the people that comment on this site are upset parents that cannot deal with the fact that their lazy-ass kid couldn’t get a good grade in the teacher’s class *boo hoo*, the aforementioned lazy-ass kid, or probably even some jerky co-worker. And yes, some reviews may be legitimate but what’s complaining on some site gonna do for you??? GO TALK TO THE TEACHER or report the teacher to the school, that will get you somewhere. Stop degrading these people that work to help YOU GET SOMEWHERE in your life. And there’s a comment here about some dumbass administrator that decided to hire a teacher based on their RMT rating? ARE YOU DUMB? And why hasn’t anybody sued this website, where did respecting your teachers go? What is wrong with my generation? I hope this site is taken down and the creator gets his pants sued off. What an abhorrent, disgusting thing to have in this day in age, I thought the 21st century was about moving forward, not backwards. And then there’s the sexual comments that are allowed on this site…smh. Oh and at ‘the student’s perspective’ how would you like it if a bunch of people were criticizing your every move, if there was a site called ‘ratemystudent’ and your teachers had the chance to complain about how you didn’t finish an assignment or came late to class or allegedly gave them a dirty look? And all you could do was sit there? Have you ever tried to consider their feelings, because um newsflash, teachers have feelings too. You say some of the reviews are legitimate BUT MANY of them are just hate speech. Like I’ve repeated a thousand times, if you have an issue with a teacher talk to them or someone else that can do something about it.

I am a 9th grade student, and I must say that the site is absolutely vulgar and completely verifiable. Most of the comments are atrocious attempts to vent rage on teachers who are just so happen to take interest in a students progress. And I must admit there are so many IDIOT children who just don't want to learn and they ruin the class for everyone, and children who actually like learning are labelled "nerds", why just because we care about our future?

I do not support this particular site, however they should like any other profession be rated by their customers. Of course I am not very knowledgeable about how this would OBJECTIVELY work, to provide the teachers with constructive criticism, but I know for certain with no other resource to turn to many GOOD students resort to using the site, what alternative is there? Confronting teachers directly can be daunting, especially if the student feels threatened. Of course there are some bad teachers who make no effort, exemplified by this comment: "Don't write to much for your assignment, I'll have to read it" That same teacher also said "Im not really interested in teaching and only do it because I will get paid"

And just to set the record straight I am an A student who cares about my grade and attempts to be objective when discussing teacher performance. And in my above comments I'm being lenient in my opinion, I am really cynical most of the time.

Some of the responses by teachers here are just laughable. Calling the site "abhorrent" and "cyber-bullying" is a pretty big generalization. Most teachers who complain about sites like RMT are condescending tyrants who see their students as inferior, especially those who teach high school. I agree that comments such as "U suck" need to be removed, but completely disregarding the opinion of students is just idiotic. You assume that if ninety percent of the students who post on RMT have something nasty to say about you, that they're all just delinquents who hate learning? Obviously, you need to grow up and see students as intelligent. Whoever created this post should be ASHAMED of themselves. Purposely posting good comments without actually observing a regular class (WITHOUT YOUR PRESENCE) is just as disgraceful and immature as those who post flagrant and incendiary comments. P.S. I am a tenth-grade student who maintains a 4.2 GPA, published a collection of short stories, various poems, and working on a full-fledged novel that explores the possibility of East Asian faiths like Shintoism and Taoism being incorporated into modern-day Western society. Still think "kids" are still drooling drones?

Those who are so ignorant as to say "Ohhhhh are you teachers scared??" I would love for you to be rated at your profession by clients who have never studied or worked within your area. Let's see how much you would cry out then (or perhaps some of you are unemployed??)Also, let's make all of your reviewers teenagers. Because we know how wonderfully informed and accurate all teenagers are to make generalisations and summaries of peoples' characters.

I have no negative comments on the site, but I find that giving teenagers a faceless opportunity to 'have a go' at teachers (a lot of the time due to getting in trouble for not performing tasks) ridiculous. These students often have no idea what the purpose behind the task is - they are not professionally trained to make such judgements.

The example above - a teenager who thinks he knows it all because he studies modern applications of religion... (kudos to you).We all know that with years of experience and professional training we mature to a reflective adult.Perhaps other master educators are sufficient to judge educators, not students.

To the person who commented after me, a supposed graduate. Indeed, it's true that teacher have feelings, we should take them in consideration, blah blah. But what would removing the website do at all? If anything, it would simply cause more of a riot and WORSE reviews on other platforms of social media. This is a resource for everyone, and clearly not too many people take it very seriously. If it's run by students, it's got to be a joke and it's doubtful any professionals will take it into any regard. But removing it is to restrict free speech in every sense! Insane, if you ask me. (I realize this comment thread is dead but I simply could not let it be :P )

I am a teacher and though I haven't seen any recent comments about me or other teachers on RMT, a few years ago I looked up my name (and others) and was shocked to see personal attacks that actually had nothing to do with teaching, but were racial/sexual in nature. Though I am not Jewish, I used to teach a little about the Holocaust, as part of a research unit in Language Arts. I had a nasty anonymous note written to me earlier that same year, and then I saw something similar on RMT, about being Jewish (which I wouldn't take offense to, except the language/message was very offensive, including threats). Meanwhile, a couple of my male colleagues were "accused" (only on RMT) of sexual harassment, while a couple of the younger female teachers were spoken of in a sexual manner. I flagged these comments and reported them to RMT, and thankfully the comments were removed, though it did take several months. This is part of the reason I disagree with the site. People are free to be as abusive as they want, without anyone checking ahead of time to see if the information is appropriate, never mind truthful. Some people hide behind the anonymity in order to seek revenge, or just to say horrible things, without having to take responsibility for their words. I don't agree that "freedom of speech" includes messages of hate, threats, racial slurs, comments on appearance, and blatant sexual remarks. If people (even principals!) think this is a valid forum to complain about teachers, then perhaps they should think of it the other way--maybe there should be a "rate my student" website, allowing anonymous comments from teachers, other students, just about anyone to go ahead and criticize, bash, and bully students they just don't like. And all the comments would be public, out in the open, and other teachers, universities, potential employers, etc, can access and review this "file" of "unbiased opinions" in order to judge his/her merits. And because It's anonymous, so it doesn't count as slander, harassment, or bullying, right? Actually, our local school-police liaison just gave a speech about cyber-bullying and how charges can be laid for the things I have just described above. So why is it OK to be abusive towards teachers, many of whom do not even "deserve" such abuse?

I will admit that I am one of those people who has posted negative comments on teacher review sites.I am a parent of a high school student. My child has had some very negative experiences with a drama teacher. I truly feel that this teacher is a bad teacher and sets a bad example for her students. I posted these comments to inform other parents and students about her and perhaps steer them away from her theatre program. These comments were not intended to destroy her or get her fired (although I admit I think she should be fired). She saw the comments and immediately went on a witch to find out who posted them. She has a lot of loyal followers who practically worship her (why I don't know). They suspected a few people (myself included) and ostracized my child and a couple others. This teacher holds serious grudges and rallies her favorites to do the same. I would love to take my concerns and allegations to the principal, but if it was discovered that I squealed on her, my child's life at school would be miserable. So now I just keep my mouth shut and have stopped posting on websites such as rate my teacher. I think it's really sad that this teacher has this much power. My child no longer participates in this theatre program. This woman gives teachers a bad name! If this were a perfect world, she would be fired and rot in hell!

Those rate my teacher sites are not FOR the teachers, they are for the students and parents. Your actions were selfish and ridiculous and you did a real disservice to people who were looking for accurate and honest information. Tell your teacher friend to grow a thicker skin.

Two sexually degrading, aggressive comments rife with x-rated language were posted about me - one in March and one last week. Obviously, I flagged them when I saw them - but, the fact that they were visible this whole time enrages me. The site claims to review every post. I am no longer in the profession and have requested the removal of my rating.

Rate my teachers is a good website. Teachers don't know how to teach or they dress provocatively and distract the students. Teaching is a profession, not a place to idle and wear party clothes. The RateMyTeachers website should not be sued. The owner is not responsible for the posts. I have received negative comments about me and some sexual comments about a female colleague, but I flag them and continue with my teaching.

Well, I know I'm a bit late to the party...but anyways. I find most of the "rationale" that the above teachers have presented to be quite amusing. And, with regards to the OP, beyond amusing. She didn't like that someone posted an anonymous and biased review to the Internet---fair enough. But how does she respond? She proceeds to post MULTIPLE anonymous and biased reviews...

Anyways, for starters, let's recap: teachers are people, they have feelings, they don't like to be criticized, they think highly of themselves (and their companions), and they find it difficult to agree with different opinions. Well, hmm, it seems that these traits could be applied to almost anyone.

So---now that we've established that teachers are reasonably representative of people as a whole---on to the issue at hand, RMI. I'm generally in the 'for' camp; however, I understand the flaws that have been stated ad nauseum. Most notably, that the site tends to attract students who feel strongly (usually in a negative way) about a given teacher---this, naturally, creates a skewed data set. But, still, from personal experience, I think the site can be useful to students.

Furthermore, going back to the second paragraph, I have found most of the "arguments" against the site to be complete bogus. We're not, for the most part, rating teachers on a personal level; rather, we're rating their ability to perform at their profession. This is not a unique concept. For example, when I need a plumber, I do research---often utilizing reviews. Now, are all these reviews 100% truthful? No. Do negative reviews hurt plumber’s feelings? Probably. Does either of these facts really matter? No, the reviews serve an accepted purpose. Moreover, I view myself as a good, hard-working student---does this (naturally biased) opinion matter when my work is being graded? Certainly not.

And, again, performance based reviews are not a unique idea. I do a very typical job---I work with people you could call "customers." I serve these people. These people are asked to review my performance on a 1-5 scale, a 4 or less is failing. I must perform; my job depends on it. Period. Teachers, on the other hand, serve students. Yes, I said it, SERVE. But---aside from a few hurt feelings---any reviews from students are impact less. You see, I feel teachers as a whole, need to realize that, especially when compared to other professions, their performance goes largely unmonitored. They are not held to real standards, and therefore I have this to say:

Teachers, life is unfair and it's often subjective, but relative to most people, you have it easy---so, toughen up.

You are being ridiculously naive and as a result will do your child no good at all. If you blindly believe everything he/she says then you are deluded. What if you've been given a highly distorted version of the facts? What if your kid isn't telling the truth? Would you still insist that he/she is right? The truth is that many kids pull fast ones and get up to all sorts - it's part of being a kid - and if you don't know that then God help you! You also sound v threatening ('I will get my way believe me') which is laughable - you wouldn't bother me for a second!

The Rate My Teacher site is fundamentally flawed as a means of rating teachers. It is only a handful of comments and doesn't meet any standards of quality or accuracy. I've read various reviews of teachers I know - and they are generally pretty irrelevant even when not a student trying to get their own back on a teacher. Some good teachers do get good comments which they deserve. Some bad teachers get no comments at all. However in all the comments above, the most absurd one is that teachers have it easy. Teachers undertake a very hard and important job. While some teachers are lazy, ineffective, etc to varying degrees, good teachers are vital to a civilised society. We all know that some children and teenagers, like some adults, can be capable of nastiness. A site that allows free rein to this is doing no favours to anyone. There is far too much vindictivess and nastiness around in graffiti, blogs and other websites and gossip. A valid rating site should ensure that the people doing the rating are subject to some form of accountability. And that their comments are in turn subject to review.

Rate My Teachers is low quality and should rate itself - and then improve on its significant shortcomings.

As a teacher myself I believe that a good teacher should always be open to critics. Only this way he/she can grow. I also believe that teachers' salary should be based on their students' academic performance as this is the case for most American schools. Ontario teachers became lazy and spoiled because they are paid no matter how they teach or behave. As for RMT, it is a very subjective website that deletes negative comments to satisfy whining superficial teachers. A good teacher is not afraid of RTM and actually takes it as an opportunity to improve himself/herself.

What you did is comparable to cheating. You have mislead every student and parent looking for reviews from people that have personally been in her classroom. You cannot asses what you have not experienced. A good friend does not equal a good teacher. People look to these sites for reviews from a variety of people and you lead them to believe these reviews where not from the same person. Shame on you, your friend, and every other teacher afraid of being honestly assessed. If she where to be judged by the company she keeps, how would she fair then? Hanging around someone who bends the rules to fit own agenda.

Too bad teachers can't have a site to rate my students or rate the parent. I wonder how they would feel. It is so sad that many teachers work beyond the call of duty and because someone has "a beef" with them they vocalize it on this site. However teachers always have to take the brunt.

People look to these sites for reviews from a variety of people and you lead them to believe these reviews where not from the same person.Oh please! If you place any weight on these reviews I have some oceanfront property in Arizona I would love to sell you.You show the character of our society. We gossip and constantly assassinate people with this gossip.

RTM is a forum for upset students to post. Those that are happy do not generally go and seek out this site. I've taught special education for years and have routinely been given the "toughest" students to work with because I have a reputation for building strong relationships and getting kids to want to work hard. That being said, not every kid ends up responding to me. Those that do, do not run out and post any comments. Those that do not succeed, even after they've been kicked out of a number of other classes, go and blame me on RMT. I don't take the comments personally because I know that students and fellow teachers and administrators all believe I'm a great teacher, but RMT is certainly NOT where someone should go to evaluate how "good" a teacher should be. The fact that "Easiness" is a category at all should tell parents and students that. Just because the class is not easy to a student does not mean the teacher is bad. Some of my best teachers growing up were in some of the hardest classes. If I had to go back and rate them, they would not get top marks because the content of the class was difficult.

RMT and RMP are NOT forums only for upset students. I have rated all of my professors on there since starting college and only two were negative reviews. For college especially it's very important to know if you're taking a class with a good teacher. I don't see how it's any different from rating a plumber or restaurant. College is expensive, and the professors are providing a service. If they are horrible or incompetent, other students deserve to know before wasting their time and money. If they are awesome they deserve recognition and recommendations for it. The problem with a rate my students site is you teachers and professors aren't paying us to do a job. Look, I know some student are horrific and some will post false things, but if 15 reviews over a six year span all say similar things, chances are that professor does suck at their job. Or is awesome, as most of mine have been.

Sorry, RMT is nothing more than a complaint-fest by students with an axe to grind. I know of a teacher in my school who is a fantastic teacher and has won numerous awards and only has about 25 reviews. He's had thousands of kids go through his doors and that's all they have. 5 of them were so atrocious that I removed them. And memo to you brazen "I speak on behalf of the whole school" egomaniacs- you don't. You don't represent the school. In most schools, RMT doesn't even cause a ripple and you're wasting your time.

Evoen though you think it may make her rmt legit, if this girl is your friend, you don't know her as a teacher. Its been proven that teachers arent the same in class and with their friends/family. Maybe she deserved the comment and you don't know it. The website helped me a lot in choosing my teachers and I think it is a way to help having better grades in the semester

Yes, they know it's the same computer and will block or remove your comments. Secondly, high school students and younger are immature and will make immature comments. However, these sites are fabulous for those trying to get through college. There are teachers out there who do not care about their students, what they're teaching, etc. They have a job for life! I take the hard-working, dedicated teachers -- why should I suffer because the administration can't get rid of a bad teacher? I am a teacher, as well as working at the college, and I often refer students to the better teachers. Why not have a public forum. And yes, you can tell by a student's comments if you can ignore their review.

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About Me

I have been teaching in NYC for over 30 years. I first taught at an inner city school. The staff was close and we all worked together to help the kids. We tutored constantly and were involved in many activities outside of school. We participated in student faculty sporting events where teachers who were not sports oriented dressed up as cheerleaders. We raised money by putting on a "faculty frolics" show. We stood on stage and made fools out of ourselves to raise school spirit and help our students feel part of the community. These feelings are no longer a part of my job. I still love my classes and students but I can't wait until I can go home at the end of the day. I use this blog to express my frustations about the way teaching has changed. I don't want to retire but sometimes feel I can't go on any longer the way the system is now.